The  Child  and  His  Religion 


■> 


The  Child  and  His 
Religion 


BY 

GEORGE  E.  DAWSON,  PH.D. 

Professor  of  Psychology 
Hartford  School  of  Religious  Pedagogy 


/^^^7 


CHICAGO 

THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CHICAGO  PRESS 

1909 


Copyright  1909  By 
The  University  of  Chicago 

Published  October  1909 


Composed  and  Printed  By 

The  University  of  Chicago  Press 

Chicago,  Illinois,  U.  S.  A. 


1)3  Z-^ 


TO 
MY   WIFE   AND   CHILDREN,    WHO,    THROUGHOUT 
THE  YEARS,   HAVE  SUPPLIED  MOST  OF  THE  IN- 
SPIRATION, AND  MUCH  OF  THE  MATERIAL,  OF  MY 
THOUGHT,   THIS   LITTLE   VOLUME   IS   DEDICATED 


PREFACE 

The  material  of  this  book  is  largely  drawn  from 
magazine  articles  and  addresses  already  given  to 
the  public.  Chap,  iii,  on  "Children's  Interest  in 
the  Bible,"  is  substantially  the  same  as  originally 
published  in  the  Pedagogical  Seminary  for  July,  1900, 
Vol.  VII.  The  other  chapters  present  in  modified 
form  the  material  contained  in  various  articles  and 
addresses.  Friends  of  the  writer  have  expressed  the 
wish  that  this  material  might  be  put  in  more  acces- 
sible form,  and  there  has  been  a  certain  public  demand 
for  the  article  on  "  Children's  Interest  in  the  Bible." 
Herein  lies  the  reason  for  publishing  the  book. 

In  bringing  this  material  together  for  publication 
in  book  form,  no  hope  has  been  cherished  of  making 
it  a  finished  product.  The  book  lacks  unity,  but 
it  is  believed  that  the  various  chapters  discuss  topics 
that  have  a  certain  relationship,  through  the  central 
aim  of  the  writer  to  bring  the  so-called  natural 
processes  of  life  and  education  into  harmony  with 
the  religious  processes.  If  the  book  appears  some- 
what controversial  in  places,  it  is  a  fault  of  style 
rather  than  of  spirit.  The  writer's  acquaintance 
with  the  unsettled  conditions  of  religious  and  educa- 
tional thought  of  the  present  is  too  intimate  to  allow 
of  his  being  a  dogmatist.  The  book  is  given  out 
in  the  hope  that  it  may  help  to  strengthen  the  reli- 
gious and  educational  views  of  those  who  agree  with 


viii  Preface 

it,  that  it  may  provoke  a  friendly  comparison  of 
judgments  from  those  who  do  not  agree  with  it,  and 
that  it  may  stimulate  all  its  readers  to  think  out  for 
themselves  the  problem  of  religious  education. 

The  writer  is  grateful  for  permission,  generously 
given  by  President  G.  Stanley  Hall,  editor  of  the 
Pedagogical  Seminary,  to  reproduce  the  article  on 
"Children's  Interest  in  the  Bible." 

George  E.  Dawson 

■  Springfield,  Mass. 
October  i,  1908 


CONTENTS 
CHAPTER  I 

PAGE 

Interest  as  a  Measure  of  Values    ....        i 

Interest  and  the  educational  reformers;  Herbart's 
doctrine  of  interest;  The  biological  conception  of  in- 
terest; The  sequence  of  interests;  Atrophy  of  inter- 
ests; Opposition  to  the  doctrine  of  interest;  Study  of 
children's  interests  in  secular  education;  Interest  and 
religious  education. 

CHAPTER  n 

The  Natural  Religion  of  Children      ...      25 

Natural  religion  and  the  doctrine  of  interest  in  educa- 
tional history;  Science  and  natural  religion;  Animism 
in  children;  The  sense  of  causality;  The  instinct  of 
immortality;  The  faith  and  good-will  of  children. 

CHAPTER  HI 
Children's  Interest  in  the  Bible     ....      53 

The  Bible  and  religious  education;  Children's  choice 
between  the  Old  and  the  New  Testament;  Choice 
among  the  books  of  the  Bible;  Choice  of  Bible  scenes, 
stories,  ^and  characters;  Development  of  interest  in 
Jesus;  Conclusions. 

CHAPTER  IV 
The  Problem  of  Religious  Education  ...      99 

Complexity  of  the  problem;  Suggestions  from  secular 
education;  The  aim  of  religious  education;  The 
material  of  religious  education;  The  method  of  reli- 
gious education;  Conclusion. 

Index 121 


CHAPTER  I 

J  J  ^i  %    ' j  V -J 
INTEREST  AS  a  .».i:;.SfIl"^.  OF  ^/MJJES 

The  economy  of  interest  'in  education  has   for 
centuries  attracted  the  attention  of  educators.     Long 
before  it  was  definitely  formulated  by  Herbart  as  a 
pedagogical  doctrine,  it  had  a  prominent  place  in 
the  thought  both  of  educational  theorists  and  of 
practical  teachers.     In  fact,  its  history  is  a  part  of 
the  general  movement  of  educational  reform,  begun 
by  Rabelais  in  the  sixteenth  century,  and  still  work- 
ing itself  out  in  current  civilization.     It  is  in  the 
light  of  this  general  movement  in  educational  history 
that  we  may  best  understand  the  origin  and  signifi- 
cance of  interest  as  an  educational  doctrine, 
v^      Interest  and  the  educational  reformers. — The  early 
^  educational  reformers  revolted  against  the  dogmatic 
V  and    artificial    education    of    their    time — with    its 
L   enslavement  to  books  and  routine  instruction,   its 
•  stress  upon  formal  discipline,  and  its  repression  of 
^  children's  individuality.     Varying  from  generation 
to  generation,  the  issues  raised  by  these  men  have 
been  the  centers  of  controversy  down  to  the  present 
time.     Many   of   them   are    still   unsettled.     What 
is  called  the  "New  Education"  is  still  making  its 
demands  for  more  modern  branches  of  study,  more 
practical  preparation  for  life,   and  a  more  liberal 
regime    of    scholarship    and    discipline.     What    is 


The  Child  and  His  Religion 


called  the  "Old  Education"  is  still  contending  for 
the  classical  languages  and  mathematics,  formal 
discipline,  and  academic  standards  of  learning  and 
instruction  generally,  Bu-t  throughout  these  cen- 
turies of  controversy  and  cha.nge,  the  motive  force 
of  educational  reform  has  not  been  primarily  peda- 
gogical. It  has  been  rather  the  impulse  springing 
from  a  changed  attitude  toward  human  life.  The 
fundamental  characteristic  of  the  first  educational 
reformers  was  their  respect  and  reverence  for  the 
natural,  spontaneous  tendencies  of  the  soul.  They 
challenged  the  age-long  assumption  that  human 
nature  was  evil  in  its  constitution,  and  that  the  begin- 
ning and  end  of  education  was  to  destroy  the  natural 
qualities,  and  create,  in  their  stead,  a  character 
radically  different.  They  brought  to  light  not 
merely,  or  chiefly,  a  larger  understanding  of  the 
human  soul,  but  more  especially  a  larger  faith  in  its 
intrinsic  worth.  Here  is  the  origin  of  the  view  that 
the  natural  interests  of  children  are  worthy  of  respect, 
and  that  they  should  be  taken  into  account  in  all 
educational  programmes.  Moreover,  it  is  probably 
true,  in  the  main,  that  from  Rabelais  to  the  present 
time  men's  attitude  toward  the  problem  of  interest 
has  been  primarily  determined  by  what  they  have 
thought  of  human  nature.  It  has  been  a  measure 
of  their  faith  in  the  innate  goodness  and  sanity  of 
man's  life. 

The  period  of  civilization  during  which  the  old, 
formal    system    of    education    was    established    is 


Interest  as  a  Measure  of  Values  3 

identical  with  what  has  been  called  "The  Age  of 
Faith."  But  this  faith  was  narrowly  limited  in  its 
outlook.  It  did  not  include  human  nature  in  its 
survey,  nor  the  objects  and  forces  of  the  material 
world.  The  men  who  shaped  the  early  systems  of 
Christian  education  and  philosophy  had  little  rever- 
ence for  what  is  natural  and  spontaneous  in  man's 
life.  They  believed  that  the  natural  inclinations 
were  wrong,  and  that  they  must  be  changed  into 
harmony  with  the  arbitrary  ideals  of  human  life  that 
had  become  standardized  in  the  theological  and 
philosophical  thought  of  the  time.  It  was  therefore 
not  only  absurd  but  dangerous  to  base  the  control  of 
life,  in  any  degree,  upon  natural  desires  and  capa- 
cities. 

The  type  of  education  resulting  from  such  an 
estimate  of  human  nature  is  well  described  in  these 
words  of  Professor  Monroe: 

The  old  conception  of  education  aimed  to  remake  the 
nature  of  the  child  by  forcing  upon  him  the  traditional  or 
customary  way  of  thinking,  of  doing,  and  even  of  emotional 
reaction;  to  substitute  for  the  instinctive  or  natural  reaction 
of  the  child  those  artificial  reactions  developed  through  many 
generations  of  religious,  intellectual,  and  social  formalism. 
Human  affections  were  evil,  and  hence  the  heart  was  to  be 
separated  from  the  objects  of  natural  desire.  Human  senses 
were  untrustworthy,  and  hence  could  not  be  made  the  basis 
of  knowledge  or  of  instruction.  Human  inclinations  and  in- 
stincts, springing  from  a  nature  depraved  in  its  essence, 
were  toward  the  evil  and  were  to  be  eradicated.  Natural 
interests,  as  expressions  of  the  nature  which  both  education 
and  religion  sought  to  repress  and  make  over,  were  to  be 


The  Child  and  His  Religion 


shunned  in  all  educational  processes.  To  the  extent  that  an 
activity  or  task  was  difficult  to  perform  intellectually  and  was 
distasteful  emotionally,  to  this  extent  it  possessed  educational 
value.  The  first  step  in  the  moral  education  was  to  "break 
the  will  of  the  child,"  which  in  its  perverseness  but  represented 
the  evil  of  human  nature.  This  was  to  be  followed  in  his 
social  and  moral  education  by  the  constant  effort  to  mold  the 
child  into  the  artificial  forms  of  conduct  wherein  a  real  and 
natural  motive  was  hidden  in  formal  behavior  satisfactory  to 
the  judgment  of  the  adult,  even  though  it  might  conceal  a 
motive  contradictory  to  the  external  expression.' 

This  is  the  type  of  education  satirized  by  Rabelais 
in  his  Gargantua,  where  he  makes  his  bookish  hero 
spend  five  years  and  three  months  in  learning  his 
letters  so  well  that  he  could  repeat  them  in  every 
possible  order;  thirteen  years,  six  months,  and  two 
weeks  more  in  learning  to  read  a  variety  of  Latin 
authors,  as  unintelligible  as  they  were  uninteresting 
to  him;  eighteen  years  and  eleven  months  in  master- 
ing the  commentaries  of  certain  learned  scholastics 
so  that  he  could  say  them  over  either  forward  or 
backward  and  understand  them  as  well  one  way 
as  the  other;  and,  finally,  sixteen  years  and  two 
months  in  learning  various  formulae  for  computing 
the  age  of  the  moon  and  the  recurrence  of  religious 
festivals.  It  is  against  this  type  of  education,  too, 
that  Rabelais'  larger  and  more  genial  faith  in  human 
nature  protests  when  he  takes  Gargantua  away  from 
the  books  and  pedantry  of  scholastic  instruction  and 
sends  him  into  the  fields  to  study  the  creatures  and 

•  Textbook  in  the  History  of  Education,  p.  566. 


Interest  as  a  Measure  oj  Values  5 

forces  of  nature;  into  the  workshops  to  learn  the 
structure  of  wood,  stone,  and  metals,  and  the  process 
of  their  manufacture;  and  out  upon  the  playground 
to  secure  vigor  of  body  and  mind  through  free  and 
spontaneous  exercise  in  the  open  air. 

Of  the  same  spirit  of  protest  was  Montaigne, 
another  French  educational  reformer  of  the  sixteenth 
century.     Says  this  writer : 

The  thing  a  boy  should  learn  is  not  what  the  old  authors 
say,  but  what  he  himself  ought  to  do  when  he  becomes  a 
man.  Wisdom,  not  knowledge!  We  may  become  learned 
from  the  learning  of  others;  wise  we  can  never  be  except  by 
our  own  wisdom.  We  are  truly  learned  from  knowing  the 
present,  not  from  knowing  the  past.  And  yet  we  toil  only 
to  stuff  the  memory  and  leave  the  conscience  and  the  under- 
standing void.  Like  birds  who  fly  abroad  to  forage  for  grain 
and  bring  it  home  in  their  beak,  without  tasting  it  themselves, 
to  feed  their  young,  so  our  pedants  go  picking  knowledge 
here  and  there  out  of  various  authors,  and  hold  it  at  their 
tongue's  end,  only  to  spit  it  out  and  distribute  it  amongst 
their  pupils. ' 

So,  too,  Comenius,  the  great  Moravian  bishop  and 
educator,  whose  system  of  instruction  was  based 
upon  the  broadest  possible  appeal  to  the  natural 
impulses  of  the  soul.  He  was  the  first  to  see,  in  a 
large  comprehensive  way,  that  the  content  and 
method  of  education  ought  to  be  made  significant 
and  attractive  to  children.  He  would  consider  the 
fundamental  desires  of  the  mind,  and  shape  these 
into  an  eagerness  for  learning  in  every  possible  way. 

'  Du  pedantisme,  Book  J,  chap.  xxiv. 


The  Child  and  His  Religion 


The  parents  should  praise  learning  and  learned  men, 
show  children  beautiful  books,  and  treat  teachers 
with  respect.  The  teacher  should  be  kind  and 
fatherly,  should  distribute  praise  and  reward  judi- 
ciously, and  should  always,  where  possible,  keep 
beautiful  and  attractive  objects  before  the  child. 
The  school  buildings  should  be  light,  airy,  and 
cheerful,  and  well  furnished  with  apparatus,  as 
pictures,  maps,  models,  and  collections  of  specimens. 
The  subjects  taught  should  not  be  too  hard  for 
the  learner's  comprehension,  and  the  more  enter- 
taining parts  of  them  should  be  especially  dwelt 
upon.  The  method  should  be  natural,  and  every- 
thing that  is  not  essential  to  the  subject  or  is 
beyond  the  pupil  should  be  omitted.  The  whole 
philosophy  of  interest  as  affecting  the  spirit  and 
method  of  education  is  summed  up  in  these  words 
of  Comenius: 

Education  should  be  conducted  without  blows,  rigour,  or 
compulsion,  as  gently  and  pleasantly  as  possible,  and  in  the 
most  natural  manner  (just  as  a  living  body  increases  in  size 
without  any  straining  or  forcible  extension  of  the  limbs;  since 
if  food,  care,  and  exercise  are  properly  supplied,  the  body 
grows  and  becomes  strong,  gradually,  imperceptibly,  and  of 
its  own  accord.  In  the  same  way  I  maintain  that  nutriment,/ 
care,  and  exercise,  prudently  supplied  to  the  mind,  lead  it 
naturally  to  wisdom,  virtue  and  piety).  The  education  given 
should  not  be  false  but  real,  not  superficial  but  thorough; 
that  is  to  say,  the  rational  animal,  man,  should  be  guided  not  by 
the  intellects  of  other  men,  but  by  his  own;  should  not  merely 
read  the  opinions  of  others  and  grasp  their  meaning  or  commit 
them  to  memory  and  repeat  them,  but  should  himself  pene- 


Interest  as  a  Measure  of  Values  7 

trate  to  the  root  of  things  and  acquire  the  habit  of  genuinely 
understanding  and  making  use  of  what  he  learns.' 

This  spirit  of  reverence  for  what  is  elemental 
and  natural  in  human  life,  and  disposition  to  be 
guided  by  it  in  directing  the  education  of  children,  is 
shared  by  all  the  great  educational  reformers.  It 
separates  them  by  centuries  from  the  contemporary 
philosophers  and  theologians,  and  makes  them 
prophets  not  only  of  a  new  education  but  also  of  a 
new  philosophy  of  life.  As  a  general  attitude,  or 
type  of  faith,  it  culminates,  perhaps,  in  Rousseau. 
This  writer,  however  erratic  and  unbalanced  he  may 
have  been,  nevertheless  said  the  things  that  needed 
to  be  said  to  his  generation.  To  a  man  of  Rousseau's 
sensibilities,  contemplating  the  French  civilization 
of  the  eighteenth  century,  with  its  formalism  in  edu- 
cation and  religion,  and  its  veneer  of  cant  and  hypoc- 
risy covering  every  possible  corruption  in  civic  and 
social  life,  the  opening  words  of  his  Emile  may  well 
have  seemed  literally  true:  "  Everything  is  good  as  it 
comes  from  the  hands  of  the  Author  of  Nature,  but 
everything  degenerates  in  the  hands  of  man."  This 
sentence  epitomizes  Rousseau's  philosophy  of  educa- 
tion. Man  perverts  and  spoils  everything  he  lays 
his  hands  upon.  He  goes  forth  with  his  ignorant 
conceit,  and  his  false  theories  of  what  ought  to  be 
done,  and  he  mars  the  fair  face  of  Nature  wherever 
he  touches  it.  There  is  nothing  to  do  but  stop  this 
sort  of  thing;   revere  nature;   watch  her  ways;   help 

'  The  Great  Didactic,  chap.  xii. 


The  Child  and  His  Religion 


her  betimes,  but,  for  the  most  part,  let  her  alone; 
at  any  rate,  keep  out  of  her  way.  All  that  other 
educational  reformers  had  felt,  and  expressed  in 
terms  more  or  less  general,  about  the  natural  worth 
of  the  human  soul,  and  the  educational  economy  of 
making  use  of  its  interests,  Rousseau  literally  burned 
into  the  minds  and  hearts  of  his  own  and  succeeding 
generations,  by  his  impassioned  eloquence. 

Herbarfs  doctrine  of  interest. — But  it  remained  for 
Herbart,  the  German  psychologist,  to  think  out  the 
mental  values  of  interest,  and  to  formulate  them  into 
an  educational  doctrine.  It  is  here  as  elsewhere  in 
human  experience.  Men  grope  their  way  through 
feeling  and  conviction  to  a  rational  explanation  and 
justification  of  what  they  have  felt  and  believed. 
Rabelais  and  Montaigne  felt  instinctively  the  worth 
of  what  is  original  and  spontaneous  in  human  nature. 
In  Comenius  and  Rousseau  this  feeling  became 
crystallized  into  a  definite  conviction.  Now,  at  the 
hands  of  Herbart,  interest  was  given  a  rational 
explanation,  and  assigned  its  place  in  educational 
economy.  Herbart  regarded  education  as  essen- 
tially a  process  of  assimilating  new  experience  in  such 
a  way  as  to  unify  the  mental  content  and  make  it 
meaningful  and  effective.  This  process  he  called 
apperception;  and  the  feeling-accompaniment  of 
apperception,  the  thing  that  makes  experience  signifi- 
cant and  so  capable  of  being  assimilated,  he  called 
interest.  Interest  for  Herbart  thus  becomes  the 
center  of  educational  effort.     It  is  the  mainspring  of 


Interest  as  a  Measure  oj  Values  g 

attention,  memory,  and  all  other  mental  activities 
involved  in  education.  If  the  subject-matter  and 
methods  of  instruction  fall  within  the  limits  of  a 
child's  interests,  he  will  give  his  attention  to  the 
instruction  and  assimilate  its  content.  EflQcient 
mental  activity  is  not  otherwise  possible  in  education. 
The  biological  conception  of  interest. — From  the 
point  of  view  of  psychological  analysis,  little  has  been 
added  to  Herbart's  conception  of  interest.  Various 
disciples  have  worked  out  his  views  in  greater  detail, 
and  some  have  enlarged  upon  them  in  the  direction 
of  a  more  comprehensive  view  of  interest.  The 
tendency  of  Herbart's  disciples,  however,  has  been 
to  emphasize  the  more  conscious  and  intellectual 
phases  of  interest,  as  was  the  case  with  Herbart 
himself.  Their  reasoning  upon  this  subject  has  been 
guided  essentially  by  psychological  standards.  With 
the  development  of  the  biological  sciences,  however, 
and  their  application  to  the  study  of  mental  growth 
in  the  lower  animals,  primitive  races,  and  children, 
new  light  has  been  shed  upon  the  problem  of  interest. 
It  is  beginning  to  be  seen  that  interest  is  not  funda- 
mentally a  psychological  function  at  all,  but  a  bio- 
logical function.  It  is  not  primarily  a  mental  activity 
having  for  its  object  the  assimilation  of  knowledge. 
It  is  rather  a  reaction  of  the  whole  life,  consciously  or 
unconsciously,  in  the  direction  of  those  adjustments 
that  insure  survival.  From  this  point  of  view, 
interest  may  be  defined  as  biological  responsiveness. 
This  responsiveness  may  include  every  degree  of  con- 


lo  The  Child  and  His  Religion 

sciousness,  from  the  most  elementary  to  the  most 
complex.  Just  as  human  activities  range  from  the 
reflex  to  the  fully  conscious,  and  just  as  every  spon- 
taneous activity  is  directed  by  that  responsiveness  to 
stimuli  that  are  economical,  so  does  interest  enter 
into  every  possible  adaptation.  It  is  just  as  narrow 
a  conception  of  interest  to  limit  it  to  conscious  feeling 
of  values,  as  some  writers  have  done,  as  it  is  to  limit 
mental  activity  as  a  whole  to  conscious  processes.  It 
may  be  said  that  there  is  no  practical  advantage  for 
education  in  thus  making  interest  extend  beyond 
the  limits  of  intellectual  perception.  But  there  is  a 
very  great  advantage.  The  entire  question  of  indi- 
rect, or  unconscious,  education — of  the  influence  of 
environment,  automatically  and  instinctively  reacted 
to;  of  suggestion  and  imitation — hinges  upon  uncon- 
scious interest. 

The  mechanism  of  interest  conceived  as  biological 
responsiveness  is  the  organic  life,  and,  more  espe- 
cially, the  nervous  system.  Herein  are  stored  up  the 
experiences  of  the  race  that  are  most  significant  for 
human  survival,  and  these  racial  experiences  come 
to  light  now  in  the  primary  reflexes,  now  in  instincts, 
and  now  in  the  gropings  of  the  intellect.  Thus  it  is 
that  the  new-born  child  makes  just  the  reactions  to 
its  environment  that  are  necessary,  and  through  such 
reflex,  or  automatic,  activities  its  interests  are  satis- 
fied. Thus  it  is  that  the  older  child,  half-consciously, 
through  such  instincts  as  fear,  sympathy,  and  play, 
reacts  to  its  environment  according  to  the  demands 


Interest  as  a  Measure  oj  Values  1 1 

of  its  nature,  and  so  satisfies  its  interests.  And  thus, 
too,  the  adult  man  or  woman,  carrying  forward  the 
reflex  and  instinctive  activities  and  interests  of  the 
earlier  years,  adds  the  conscious,  rationally  directed 
activities,  and  so  satisfies  his  or  her  interests  as 
intellectually  perceived. 

The  sequence  of  interests. — We  have  here  a  sug- 
gestion that  the  interests  of  life  appear  in  a  certain 
order,  or  sequence,  just  as  the  needs  and  activities 
appear  with  which  they  are  correlated.  Thus  the 
child  lives  first  in  a  world  of  reflex  and  instinctive 
experience.  Its  interests  are  confined  to  physical 
comfort,  to  eating  and  sleeping,  to  its  fears,  its 
repugnances,  its  sympathies.  Then  is  added  the 
world  of  sense  and  motor  experience,  and  its  interests 
widen  with  its  tactual,  visual,  and  auditory  sensa- 
tions. Finally,  there  is  opened  up  to  it  the  world  of 
ideal  relations — of  imagination,  reason,  and  con- 
science— and  its  interests  become  intellectual,  artistic, 
and  moral.  An  illustration  of  the  parallelism  between 
interest  and  organic  development  is  seen  in  the 
child's  learning  to  walk.  As  the  motor  centers 
controlling  the  movements  necessary  to  walking 
mature,  the  child  becomes  keenly  interested  in  every 
activity  that  increases  his  ability  to  walk.  So  it  is 
with  talking.  The  speech  centers  in  the  brain,  and 
the  nervous  and  muscular  mechanism  of  the  vocal 
organs,  reach  a  certain  stage  of  development,  and 
the  child  becomes  interested  in  making  sounds, 
imitating  the  language  of  others,  and  so  of  acquiring 


12  The  Child  and  His  Religion 

the  power  of  speech.  Still  more  striking  is  the 
illustration  seen  in  the  ripening  of  sexual  interests. 
Parallel  with  the  functioning  of  the  sexual  centers  in 
the  spinal  cord  and  brain,  and  the  changes  in  general 
organic  development,  there  appears  a  vast  complex 
of  automatic  and  instinctive  tendencies,  which 
involve  some  of  the  most  powerful  interests  in  human 
life.  The  entire  attitude  toward  the  opposite  sex  is 
changed.  New  habits  of  dress,  new  manners,  and 
new  modes  of  social  activity  are  formed.  Ambitions 
and  the  very  ideals  of  life  are  modified,  and  the  whole 
world  takes  on  a  different  shading  in  its  values. 

The  atrophy  of  interest. — As  a  corollary  of  this  law 
of  sequence  in  interests,  there  is  a  law  of  decay,  or 
atrophy,  of  interests.  As  with  other  functions  of 
life,  if  an  interest  is  not  satisfied,  it  will  tend  to  grow 
feebler  and  finally  disappear.  This  atrophy  of 
interests  is  surest  and  quickest  in  its  results  when  the 
interest  first  manifests  itself.  Thus  a  newly  hatched 
chick  will  peck  at  everything  that  suggests  food. 
Its  reflex  nervous  mechanism  is  ripe  for  pecking,  and 
it  has  the  associated  pecking  interest.  But  if  the 
chick  is  prevented  from  pecking  for  a  few  days,  it 
will  lose  both  the  power  of  pecking  and  the  interest 
in  doing  so.  Thereafter,  food  must  be  put  into  its 
mouth  to  keep  it  alive.  When  a  child  has  reached 
a  certain  stage  of  development,  it  shows  an  interest 
in  trying  to  stand  on  its  feet  and  walk.  If,  for  any 
reason  it  is  prevented  from  doing  so,  the  interest  will 
gradually  diminish  and  may  in  time  fade  out  entirely. 


Interest  as  a  Measure  of  Values  13 

This  is  illustrated  in  the  so-called  wild  children,^ 
who,  being  deprived  in  early  life  of  human  compan- 
ionship, have  not  had  the  exarnple  of  upright  posture 
and  locomotion.  I  once  saw  a  little  girl  of  three 
years  who  was  unable  to  walk  or  even  stand  alone. 
She  would  make  no  attempt  to  do  either  and  seemed 
to  have  absolutely  no  interest  in  getting  up  on  her 
feet  or  walking.  The  child  seemed  perfectly  well, 
and  her  parents  had  become  very  anxious  about  her. 
Inquiry  revealed  the  fact  that  when  she  was  nine 
months  old,  the  little  girl  had  been  injured  by  a  fall, 
and  had  been  kept  very  closely  confined  for  six 
months,  at  first  in  her  crib  and  later  in  a  high  chair, 
never  being  allowed  to  stand  on  her  feet.  When  she 
was  at  last  put  upon  the  floor,  she  began  her  creeping 
just  as  she  had  been  in  the  habit  of  doing  six  months 
before.  Nor  did  she  show  any  disposition  to  do 
otherwise  than  creep,  even  after  her  strength  had 
been  fully  recovered.  It  required  several  months  of 
careful  attention  on  the  part  of  the  parents,  in  exer- 
cising her  in  standing  and  walking,  to  awaken  any 
interest  whatsoever  in  these  activities.  This  law 
of  atrophy  through  disuse  undoubtedly  operates 
throughout  the  entire  range  of  human  interests,  not 
only  in  those  interests  more  closely  related  to  organic 
life,  but  also  in  the  intellectual,  moral,  and  religious 
interests.  It  is  manifestly  of  great  concern  to  par- 
ents and  others  who  have  the  care  of  children  that 
all  normal  interests  be  given  a  chance  to  function  at 

I  Cf.  Cornish,  Animals  at  Work  and  Play,  pp.  315-23. 


14  The  Child  and  His  Religion 

the  right  time  and  in  the  right  way.  There  can  be 
no  question  that  intellectual  sluggishness  and  moral 
and  religious  indifference  are  frequently  due  to  an 
atrophy  of  interest  at  those  periods  of  life  when  the 
intellectual,  moral,  and  religious  ideas  and  feelings 
are  awakening.  It  is  probably  a  literal  scientific  fact 
that  a  child's  interest  in  God  or  some  phase  of  moral 
conduct  is  as  completely  subject  to  the  law  of  atrophy 
as  the  chick's  pecking  interest  or  the  child's  interest 
in  walking. 

The  biological  view  of  interest,  therefore,  identifies 
it  with  the  vital  needs  of  life.  Interest  is  a  measure 
of  survival  values.  The  interested  individual  lives 
and  grows;  the  uninterested  individual  dies.  That 
subject-matter  in  education  and  those  methods  of 
instruction  that  lay  hold  upon  the  interests  of  chil- 
dren, promote  life  and  growth.  That  subject-matter, 
those  methods  of  instruction  that  do  not  lay  hold 
upon  the  interests  of  children,  produce  arrest  of 
development  and  death.  Thus  does  a  scientific 
estimate  of  the  primary  economy  of  interest  confirm 
the  instinctive  convictions  of  the  educational  re- 
formers. The  protest  of  these  men  against  a  view 
of  life,  and  a  type  of  education,  that  regarded  human 
nature  as  intrinsically  evil,  and  the  great  elemental 
interests  of  the  soul  as  false  and  dangerous,  was  not 
only  broadly  human  and  sympathetic;  it  was  also 
true. 

Opposition  to  the  doctrine  of  interest. — If,  then,  the 
doctrine  of  interest  in  education  has  the  sanction  of 


Interest  as  a  Measure  of  Values  15 

four  centuries  of  educational  reform;  if,  according 
to  Herbart  and  his  followers,  it  is  indispensable  to 
the  mental  processes  involved  in  education;  and  if, 
according  to  biological  psychology,  it  is  an  index  of 
the  significance  and  value  of  experience,  how  comes 
it  that  it  is  still  vigorously  opposed  as  a  principle  of 
education  and  conduct?  One  reason,  and  the 
principal  one,  has  already  been  given.  Real  interest 
is  fundamentally  a  natural  reaction  of  the  soul.  It 
therefore  comes  under  condemnation  along  with 
everything  else  that  belongs  to  the  category  of  the 
natural.  As  we  have  found,  there  was  a  time  in  the 
history  of  Christian  civilization  when  human  nature 
was  regarded  as  utterly  vile  and  depraved.  It  is 
less  than  two  hundred  years  since  Jonathan  Edwards, 
the  greatest  of  American  theologians,  said:  "God 
has  laid  himself  under  no  obligation,  by  any  promise, 
to  keep  any  natural  man  out  of  hell  one  moment. 
Natural  men  are  held  in  the  hand  of  God  over  the 
pit  of  hell.  They  have  deserved  the  fiery  pit  and  are 
already  sentenced  to  it."'  Such  a  view  of  human 
nature  is  certainly  sufficient  to  account  for  much  of 
the  antagonism  toward  the  doctrine  of  interest.  To 
a  man  who  thought  thus  of  the  "natural  man,"  any 
suggestion  that  the  spontaneous  interests  of  children, 
who  are  in  the  highest  degree  natural,  are  significant 
guides  in  their  care  and  training,  would  seem  little 
short  of  blasphemous.  While  the  conception  of 
human  nature  as  a  thing  intrinsically  evil  is  rapidly 
I  Sermon  on  "Sinners  in  the  Hands  of  an  Angry  God." 


1 6  The  Child  and  His  Religion 

fading  from  the  modern  mind,  there  are  still  some 
people,  influential  in  intellectual  and  social  life,  who 
talk  about  education  and  parental  government  as 
though  they  believed  in  innate  depravity.  And 
there  are  not  a  few  men  and  women  who  evince  a 
lurking  suspicion  that  it  is  not  safe  to  trust  the  lead- 
ings of  a  boy's  interests  either  in  education  or  every- 
day conduct. 

But  a  belief  in  innate  depravity  is  not  usually  given 
as  a  reason  for  rejecting  the  doctrine  of  interest.  The 
more  common  one  is,  that  to  consult  the  interests  of 
children  means  to  follow  the  lines  of  least  resistance, 
and  this  means  to  weaken  the  will.  This  reason 
assumes  that  if  a  task  is  interesting  the  effort  put 
forth  in  its  execution  will  be  less.  But  the  fact  is 
that  interest  increases  effort.  A  classic  illustration 
of  this  truth  is  the  play  of  children.  Play  in  the 
child's  life  realizes  completely  the  idea  of  many- 
sided  interest,  and  yet  it  is  just  the  form  of  activity 
that  calls  forth  the  most  complete  self-expression  and 
stimulates  the  greatest  effort.  Everybody  who  has 
observed  the  plays  of  children  knows  that  a  healthy, 
enthusiastic  boy  on  the  playground  is  tireless  and 
indefatigable  in  his  efforts.  A  like  principle  holds 
in  the  work  of  adults.  What  man  in  practical 
life  believes  that  his  efforts  are  greater  and  more 
sustained  if  his  work  is  uninteresting  and  dis- 
tasteful to  him?  Quite  the  opposite  is  true. 
Edison,  the  inventor,  is  probably  one  of  the 
hardest  workers  in   America,   and   he   is   probably 


Interest  as  a  Measure  of  Values  1 7 

one  of  the  most  completely  absorbed  in  the  interest 
of  his  tasks. 

From  the  point  of  view  of  education,  the  fact  that 
a  study  is  interesting  is  not  proof  that  it  diminishes 
effort.  Interest  is  indissolubly  bound  up  with  atten- 
tion, and,  as  Professor  James  contends,  attention  is 
the  center  of  will.  Interest,  indeed,  does  not  pro- 
duce the  effortless  dawdlers  in  schoolrooms,  as  every 
practical  teacher  knows.  It  is  the  indifferent  pupils, 
the  uninterested  ones,  that  dawdle  over  their  work; 
and  it  is  just  these  who  are  apt  to  suffer  in  a  deteriora- 
tion of  will.  The  truth  is  there  is  no  really  effective 
effort  in  education,  or  elsewhere,  without  a  deep, 
fundamental  interest  in  the  work.  Interest,  indeed, 
economizes  energy  and  makes  a  task  easier.  But 
this  does  not  mean  that  effort  is  less  intense  while 
the  task  lasts.  It  means  the  contrary.  And  when 
the  task  is  completed  in  less  time,  and  with  a  less 
expenditure  of  energy,  there  is  time  and  energy 
available  for  other  tasks.  No  small  amount  of 
human  energy  has  been  wasted  in  trying  to  achieve 
the  merit  of  lifeless  drudgery;  and  not  a  few  failures 
in  human  life  have  been  due  to  choosing  for  children 
the  path  of  greatest  resistance  simply  because  it  was 
the  most  difficult. 

This  is  no  plea  for  shirking  a  disagreeable  task. 
Things  must  be  done  sometimes  that  seem  uninter- 
esting and  cruelly  hard.  But  if  the  life  has  been 
made  strong  through  achieving  its  ends  along  the 
lines  of  its  desires,  it  will  face  the  occasional  hard  and 


The  Child  and  His  Religion 


uninteresting  tasks  in  the  joy  of  mastering  difficul- 
ties. On  the  other  hand,  if  a  child  is  trained  under 
a  regime  of  uninteresting  tasks,  if  it  is  kept  involved 
in  difficulties  for  the  sake  of  inuring  it  to  hardships, 
its  spirit  will  suffer  from  an  atrophy  of  desires, 
its  life  w^ill  lack  motive  and  intensity,  and  vi^hile  it 
may  go  through  the  hard  crises  of  life  uncomplain- 
ingly and  with  what  seems  to  be  the  spirit  of  a  martyr, 
its  fortitude  will  be  due  not  so  much  to  heroism  as  to 
apathy. 

But  there  is  another  reason  assigned  for  rejecting 
the  doctrine  of  interest.  It  is  asserted  that  some 
interests  are  undeniably  bad.  This  is  true,  but  such 
interests  come  under  the  general  law  of  perverted 
functions  and  are  quite  apart  from  the  normal 
standards  of  life.  I  have  defined  interest  as  "bio- 
logical responsiveness."  That  is  to  say,  it  is  a  func- 
tion correlated  with  every  vital  process.  If,  then, 
any  vital  process  be  perverted,  the  interests  correlated 
with  such  process  will  also  be  perverted.  Thus 
there  are  nutritive  interests  associated  with  the 
process  of  nutrition.  The  child  craves  food,  and, 
under  normal  conditions,  this  craving  has  correlated 
with  it  interests  that  are  healthy.  But  through  some 
perversion  of  the  nutritive  process,  either  hereditary 
or  acquired,  or  through  some  ill-advised  gratification 
of  appetite  that  has  excited  nervous  sensations  which 
have  resulted  in  a  perversion  of  appetite,  it  may 
crave  food  that  is  harmful.  In  such  case,  its  nutri- 
tive interests  will  be  abnormal.     Or,  again,   there 


Interest  as  a  Measure  of  Values  19 

are  interests  associated  with  the  child's  emotional 
life,  as  those  correlated  with  fear,  anger,  love,  etc. 
Thus  the  child  craves  the  companionship  and  affec- 
tion of  other  children,  and,  under  normal  conditions, 
its  craving  is  a  healthy  one.  But  there  may  be 
some  twist  in  its  affectional  life.  It  may  be  too 
affectionate,  or  its  affections  may  seek  an  outlet 
through  wrong  channels.  In  such  case,  the  child's 
social  interests  will  be  abnormal.  So  it  is  with  all 
the  various  classes  of  interest.  Intrinsically,  they 
are  all  good.  Bad  interests  are  perverted  or  diseased 
forms,  and  the  cure  lies  not  in  suppression,  but  in 
seeking  out  the  cause  of  the  perversion  and  removing 
it.  A  boy's  interest  in  athletics,  for  instance,  or  a 
girl's  interest  in  dress,  to  such  a  degree  that  their 
high-school  work  is  interfered  with,  cannot  be  most 
satisfactorily  regulated  by  attempting  to  eradicate 
it.  It  is  primarily  a  healthy  interest,  and  has  become 
harmful  only  through  excess.  The  remedy  lies  in 
discovering  the  causes  of  this  excess  and  removing 
them. 

Study  oj  children's  interest  in  secular  education. — 
The  doctrine  of  interest  has  now  been  so  generally 
accepted  by  progressive  secular  educators,  that  the 
branches  ordinarily  taught  in  the  public  schools  are 
being  scrutinized  in  a  new  light.  The  entire  ques- 
tion as  to  the  choice  and  gradation  of  lesson-material 
is  being  reopened.  Both  educational  experts,  and 
teachers  practically  engaged  in  schoolroom  work,  are 
testing  in  various  ways  the  educational  values  of  the 


20  The  Child  and  His  Religion 

subjects  taught  and  their  adaptation  to  the  different 
levels  of  feeling  and  intelligence.  Thus  the  ele- 
mentary interests  of  children  in  the  qualities  of 
objects,  such  as  use,  action,  color,  form,  and  the  like 
have  been  studied  by  Binet/  Barnes,^  and  Shaw.^ 
The  distribution  of  interests  among  the  subjects  of 
the  public-school  curriculum  has  been  studied  by 
Taylor.-*  Children's  interests  in  the  reading-matter 
of  the  school  curriculum,  as  well  as  their  general 
literary  interests,  have  been  studied  by  Wissler,s 
Miss  Chase, '^  and  Kirkpatrick.'  Miss  Ward^  has 
studied  the  geographical  interests;  Mrs.  Barnes,^ 
the  historical  interests;  and  Miss  Gates, '°  the  musical 
interests.  Play  interests  have  been  studied  by  Presi- 
dent Hall,"  Ellis  and  Hall,"  Gulick,^^  Mrs.  Burke, ^^ 
and  others.     The  puzzle  interest,   as  showing  the 

■  Revue  philosophique,  December,  1890. 

3  The  Pacific  Educational  Journal,  February,  1896. 

3  Child-Study  Monthly,  Vol.  II,  pp.  152-67. 

4  Pedagogical  Seminary,  Vol.  V,  pp.  497-511. 
s  Ibid.,  pp.  523-40. 

(>  Proceedings  N.  E.  A.,  1898,  pp.  1011-15. 

7  Northwestern  Monthly,  Vol.   VIII,   pp.   651-54;    Vol.   IX, 
pp.  188-91,  338-42. 

8  Education,  Vol.  XVIII,  pp.  235-40. 

0  Barnes'  Studies  in  Education,  Vol.  I,  pp.  83-93. 
^^'°  Journal  of  Pedagogy,  Vol.  II,  pp.  265-84. 
' '  Scribner's  Magazine,  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  690-96. 
"  Pedagogical  Seminary,  Vol.  IV,  pp.  129-75. 
'3  Ibid.,  Vol.  VI,  pp.  135-51. 
'*  Northwestern  Monthly,  Vol.  IX,  pp.  349-55. 


Interest  as  a  Measure  of  Values  21 

more  complex  intellectual  interests  of  children,  has 
been  studied  by  Lindley.'  O'Shea^  has  studied 
children's  interests  in  pictures,  myths,  and  nature 
literature.  While  their  interests  as  revealed  in  ideals, 
ambitions,  choice  of  occupations,  etc.,  have  been 
studied  by  Barnes,^  Miss  Darrah,-*  Monroe, ^  and 
Jegi.*"  The  data  derived  from  these  and  many 
similar  studies  yield  much  concurrent  testimony 
regarding  the  nature  and  development  of  children's 
spontaneous  interests.  Their  influence  has  already 
modified  to  a  considerable  extent  the  theory  and 
practice  of  secular  education.  They  prove  con- 
clusively that  the  study  of  children's  interests  is  a 
profitable  method  of  approach  to  the  problem  of 
rational  instruction. 

Interest  and  religious  education. — In  religious 
education,  the  doctrine  of  interest  has  not  been  so 
widely  accepted  as  in  secular  education.  It  is  much 
harder  to  get  a  sympathetic  hearing  on  such  a  topic 
before  a  body  of  religious  teachers  than  before  a  body 
of  secular  teachers.  A  few  years  ago,  in  addressing 
a  Sunday-school  convention,  I  made  the  statement 
that  the  Bible  material  chosen  for  use  in  the  Sunday 
schools  ought  to  be  adapted  to  the  interests  and  intel- 

1  American  Journal  of  Psychology,  Vol.  VIII,  pp.  431-93. 

2  Child-Study  Monthly,  Vol.  II,  pp.  266  ff. 

3  Northwestern  Monthly,  Vol.  IX,  pp.  91-93. 

4  Popular  Science  Monthly,  Vol.  LIII,  pp.  88-98. 
s  Education,  Vol.  XVIII,  pp.  259-64. 

^  Transactions  of  the  Illinois  Society  of  Child-Study,  Vol.  Ill, 
pp.  131-44- 


22  The  Child  and  His  Religion 

ligence  of  the  pupils.  From  the  point  of  view  of 
most  secular  teachers,  this  statement  was  so  common- 
place as  to  have  in  it  an  element  of  humor.  And 
yet  a  man  prominent  in  Sunday-school  work  chal- 
lenged it  vigorously,  asserting,  amidst  considerable 
applause,  that  children  should  be  taught  what  they 
ought  to  know  in  the  Bible,  and  not  what  they  wanted 
to  know.  At  one  time,  while  attempting  to  collect 
the  opinions  of  teachers  and  others  as  to  what  por- 
tions of  the  Bible  are  most  attractive  to  children  of 
different  ages  and  types,  I  sent  a  list  of  questions 
to  a  prominent  religious  publication.  The  editor 
replied  that  he  could  not  publish  it,  he  had  no  sym- 
pathy with  such  an  attempt,  and  did  not  believe  in 
selecting  Bible  material  according  to  the  likes  or 
dislikes  of  pupils.  In  the  early  Christian  centuries, 
a  stern  church  Father  became  much  incensed  at 
those  who  proposed  to  apply  grammatical  principles 
to  the  interpretation  of  the  Bible,  and  said  he  would 
blush  to  have  the  Holy  Scriptures  subjected  to  the 
rules  of  grammar.  So,  apparently,  would  this 
editor  blush  to  have  the  Holy  Scriptures  subjected 
to  the  laws  of  human  nature.  The  most  extensive 
organization  in  the  world  for  the  promotion  of  Bible- 
study  in  the  Sunday  school  has  shaped  its  courses 
of  study  from  the  beginning  with  complete  disregard 
for  the  interests  and  capacities  of  children.  Only 
within  the  past  year  has  it  yielded  to  the  more  pro- 
gressive element  in  religious  education,  which  has 
now  become  strong  enough  to  control  the  situation. 


Interest  as  a  Measure  oj  Values  23 

The  tardiness  of  religious  educators  in  accepting 
a  principle  that  secular  education  has  incorporated 
into  its  pedagogical  creed,  is  not  hard  to  understand. 
We  have  found  that  throughout  those  centuries  when 
all  education  was  under  ecclesiastical  control, 
theology  taught  that  the  natural  man  was  vile  and 
the  natural  interests  of  the  human  heart  were  not 
to  be  trusted.  The  aim  then  was  to  repress  and 
eradicate  these  natural  interests  and  to  create  a 
man  that  should  be  conformed  to  religious,  and  not  to 
natural,  standards.  When  secular  education  sepa- 
rated itself  from  religious  institutions,  it  was  more 
open  to  the  influence  of  the  changing  views  of  human 
nature.  Science  became  its  handmaid,  moreover, 
and  has  increasingly  shaped  its  aims  and  given  direc- 
tion to  its  activities.  But  any  suggestion  that  the 
natural  processes  of  life,  of  whatsoever  kind,  are  not 
to  be  trusted  and  utilized  in  education  is  repugnant 
to  science.  Hence  secular  education,  under  the 
influence  of  science,  becomes  more  and  more  com- 
mitted to  natural  aims  and  methods.  Meanwhile, 
religious  education,  sharing  the  age-long  suspicions 
of  the  church  that  naturalistic  interpretations  of 
human  life  are  wrong,  and  that  science  cannot 
legitimately  shape  its  ideals  and  methods,  whatever 
it  may  do  with  secular  education,  does  not  follow  the 
latter  in  its  development,  except  in  the  most  reluctant 
and  half-hearted  manner. 

But  there  are  signs  of  a  new  era  in  religious  educa- 
tion, as  there  are  signs  of  a  new  era  in  religious  life 


24  The  Child  and  His  Religion 

as  a  whole.  Tendencies  that  have  been  operating 
within  the  church  from  the  beginning  are  culminat- 
ing in  a  different  view  of  the  natural  world.  Men 
are  ceasing  to  believe  in  that  sharp  distinction  be- 
tween the  natural  and  the  supernatural  in  which 
their  fathers  believed.  They  are  coming  to  believe, 
and  believe  fervently,  that  nature  is  the  theater  of 
God's  activity  no  less  than  what  has  been  thought  to 
be  outside  of  nature,  and  therefore  cannot  be  evil. 
They  are  coming  to  believe  that  earth  and  earth's 
children  are  not  in  conflict  with  heaven  and  the  chil- 
dren of  heaven.  They  are  coming  to  believe  that 
the  natural  man  is  not,  as  Jonathan  Edwards  thought, 
suspended  over  hell  by  an  angry  God,  but  rather  a 
creature  of  God's  love  and  care — not  an  utterly  bad 
man  at  all,  but  a  man  trying  to  live  his  life  out  up  to 
the  full  level  of  his  ability  and  opportunities.  And 
with  these  changed,  and  changing,  convictions  re- 
garding nature  and  man,  the  church  at  its  best  is  now 
ready  to  recognize  natural  processes  in  religious 
education,  and  in  the  regeneration  of  society,  and  to 
welcome  the  aid  of  science  in  doing  the  work  it  is 
appointed  to  do.' 

'  For  more  extended  discussions  regarding  the  doctrine  of  in- 
terest in  education,  see  James,  Talks  to  Teachers  on  Psychology, 
chap,  x;  De  Garmo,  Interest  in  Education;  O'Shea,  Education  as 
Adjustment,  pp.  146!?.;  McMurry,  Elements  of  General  Method, 
chap,  iii;  Dewey,  Interest  in  Relation  to  Will  (Herbart  Yearbook, 
1895);   and  Ostcrmann,  Interest  in  Its  Relation  to  Pedagogy. 


CHAPTER  II 
THE  NATURAL  RELIGION  OF  CHILDREN 

The  view  that  a  child  is  naturally  religious  is  a 
part  of  the  same  general  philosophy  of  life  that  under- 
lies the  doctrine  of  interest  in  education.  According 
to  this  philosophy,  nature  is  the  progressive  unfold- 
ment  not  only  of  material  structures  but  also  of 
human  values.  It  is  a  mode  of  spiritual  activity. 
Human  life  is  a  part  of  the  cosmic  order,  and  is  sub- 
ject to  the  same  laws  that  control  the  movements  of 
electrons  within  an  atom  or  the  revolutions  of  the  solar 
system.  All  that  can  ever  be  in  man's  world  is 
implicit  in  nature.  This  is  no  more  than  to  assert 
in  psychological  terms  the  law  of  the  conservation 
of  energy.  Hence  those  who  accept  this  philosophy, 
have  never  found  it  hard  to  believe  that  the  natural 
interests  of  children  are  intrinsically  healthy,  and 
under  normal  conditions,  are  safe  guides  in  their 
training  and  care.  Hence,  too,  those  who  accept 
this  philosophy  have  always  sought  in  the  child  the 
germs  of  religion,  as  of  everything  else  that  enters  into 
the  life  of  the  adult  man  or  woman. 

Natural  religion  and  the  doctrine  of  interest  in 
educational  history. — Accordingly,  the  doctrine  of 
interest  and  the  belief  in  natural  religion  have  had 
a  similar  history.  The  latter  has  received  more  at- 
tention from  theology,  and  the  former  from  educa- 

25 


26  The  Child  and  His  Religion 

tion.  But  of  every  generation  of  theologians  and 
educators  it  may  be  said  that  the  two  behefs  have 
been  closely  associated  both  in  the  minds  of  indi- 
viduals and  in  systems  of  thought.  It  is  not  surpris- 
ing, therefore,  though  none  the  less  significant,  that 
the  history  of  educational  reform  should  support  not 
only  the  doctrine  of  interest,  as  we  have  found  in  the 
previous  chapter,  but  also  the  belief  in  the  child's 
natural  religion.  Thus  Sir  Francis  Bacon,  whose 
philosophical  writings  have  had  a  large  influence  in 
the  development  of  inductive  reasoning  and  in  the 
whole  movement  of  modern  science,  identified  reli- 
gious processes  with  those  of  nature.  He  believed 
that  the  rational  powers  of  man's  soul  are  divine  and 
that  man  realizes  himself  religiously,  as  otherwise, 
through  natural  means.  A  more  comprehensive 
statement  of  this  view  of  human  life  has  perhaps 
never  been  made  than  is  contained  in  Bacon's  first 
aphorism: 

Man,  as  the  minister  and  interpreter  of  nature,  does  and 
understands  as  much  as  his  observations  on  the  order  of 
nature,  either  with  regard  to  things  or  the  mind,  permit  him, 
and  neither  knows  nor  is  capable  of  more.' 

Comenius  also,  whom  some  believe  to  have  been 
the  greatest  educator  of  the  Christian  centuries, 
identified  religion  with  the  natural  qualities  of  the 
child's  life.  A  fundamental  principle  in  his  educa- 
tional philosophy  was  that  the  seeds  of  learning, 
virtue,  and  piety  are  naturally  implanted  in  the 
human  soul.     Of  piety  he  says: 

'  Novum  Organmn,  Book  I,  "Aphorism"  I. 


Natural  Religion  of  Children  27 

That  the  roots  of  piety  are  present  in  man  is  shoun  by 
the  fact  that  he  is  in  the  image  of  God.  For  an  image  impHes 
likeness,  and  that  like  rejoices  in  like,  is  an  immutable  law  of 
nature.  Since,  then,  man's  only  equal  is  He  in  whose  image 
he  has  been  made,  it  follows  that  there  is  no  direction  in  which 
he  can  be  more  easily  carried  by  his  desires  than  towards  the 
fountain  whence  he  took  his  origin.' 

And  again,  in  answer  to  those  who  opposed  his  views 
with  the  doctrine  of  innate  depravity: 

It  is  base,  wicked,  and  an  evident  sign  of  ingratitude,  that 

we  continually  complain  of  our  corrupt  state If  we 

deny  that  we,  with  our  offspring,  are  unfit  for  the  kingdom  of 
God,  how  was  it  that  Christ  said  of  children  that  theirs  was  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  ?  Or  how  can  he  refer  us  to  them,  bidding 
us  to  become  as  little  children,  if  we  wish  to  enter  into  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  ?  .  .  .  .  We  see  then  that  it  is  more 
natural  and  easier  for  a  man  to  become  wise,  honest  and 
righteous  than  for  his  progress  to  be  hindered  by  incidental 
depravity.     For  everything  returns  easily  to  its  own  nature. 

Pestalozzi,  the  great  Swiss  educator,  whose  influ- 
ence in  giving  a  social  impulse  to  education  has  hardly 
been  equaled,  likewise  makes  religion  a  primary  con- 
stituent of  the  child's  nature.  He  not  only  be- 
lieved in  the  child's  intuitive  perception  of  religious 
things  but  he  would  have  this  quality  of  his  mind 
cultivated  along  with  other  qualities  throughout  the 
entire  educational  process.     He  says  to  the  mother: 

God  has  given  to  thy  child  all  the  faculties  of  our  nature, 
but  the  grand  point  remains  undecided — how  shall  this  heart, 
this  head,  these  hands,  be  employed  ?  To  whose  service  shall 
they  be  dedicated  ?  A  question  the  answer  to  which  involves 
a  futurity  of  happiness  or  misery  to  a  life  so  dear  to  thee 

I  The  Great  Didactic,  chap,  v,  sec.  i8. 


28  The  Child  and  His  Religion 

It  is  recorded  that  God  opened  the  heavens  to  the  patriarch 
of  old,  and  showed  him  a  ladder  leading  thither.  This  ladder 
is  let  down  to  every  descendant  of  Adam;  it  is  offered  to  thy 
child.  But  he  must  be  taught  to  climb  it.  And  let  him  not 
attempt  it  by  the  cold  calcvilations  of  the  head,  or  the  mere 
impulse  of  the  heart;  but  let  all  these  powers  combine,  and 
the  noble  enterprise  will  be  crowned  with  success.  These 
powers  are  already  bestowed  on  him,  but  to  thee  it  is  given  to 
assist  in  calling  them  forth.  ^ 

Pestalozzi's  belief  in  the  innate  religious  qualities  of 
the  child,  and  his  conviction  that  the  development  of 
these  should  be  an  integral  part  of  all  education,  may 
be  summed  up  in  the  following  quotations  cited  by 
Quick: 

The  child  loves  and  believes  before  it  thinks  and  acts. 

These  forces  of  the  heart, — faith  and  love, — are  in  the 
formation  of  immortal  man  what  the  root  is  for  the  tree. 

Man  does  not  live  by  bread  alone;  every  child  needs  a 
religious  development;  every  child  needs  to  know  how  to 
pray  to  God  in  all  simplicity,  but  with  faith  and  love. 

If  the  reUgious  element  does  not  run  through  the  whole  of 
education,  this  element  will  have  little  influence  on  the  life; 
it  remains  formal  or  isolated. 

The  child  accustomed  from  his  earliest  years  to  pray,  to 
think,  and  to  work,  is  already  more  than  half  educated.^ 

But  it  is  to  Froebel  that  we  must  look  for  the  most 
complete  expression  of  the  belief  that  the  child's 
nature  is  essentially  religious.  Indeed,  Froebel's 
entire  philosophy  turns  upon  this  point.  The  whole 
visible  universe  is  divinely  constituted.  It  is  the 
external  expression  of  an  internal  energy,  which  is 

'  Letters  to  Greaves,  p.  21. 

»  Educational  Reformers,  p.  358. 


Natural  Religton  of  Children  29 

God.  Man  is  one  with  God,  and  is  a  part  of  the 
universal  process  of  self-realization. 

It  is  the  special  destiny  and  life-work  of  man,  as  an  intelli- 
gent and  rational  being,  to  become  fully,  vividly,  and  clearly 
conscious  of  his  essence,  of  the  divine  effluence  in  him,  and, 
therefore,  of  God;  to  become  fully,  vividly,  and  clearly  con- 
scious of  his  destiny  and  life-work;  and  to  accomplish  this, 
to  render  it  (his  essence)  active,  to  reveal  it  in  his  own  hfe 
with  self-determination  and  freedom. 

Since  the  goal  of  man's  life  is  to  render  the  divine 
content  of  the  universe  and  his  own  life  conscious  to 
himself,  and  make  himself  an  efficient  coworker  with 
God  in  the  universal  process,  the  function  of  all 
education  is  to  help  man  to  this  goal. 

By  education  [says  Froebel],  the  divine  essence  of  man 
should  be  unfolded,  brought  out,  lifted  into  consciousness,  and 
man  himself  raised  into  free,  conscious  obedience  to  the 
divine  principle  that  lives  in  him,  and  to  a  free  representation 
of  this  principle  in  his  life.  Education,  in  instruction,  should 
lead  man  to  see  and  know  the  divine,  spiritual,  and  eternal 
principle  which  animates  surrounding  nature,  constitutes  the 
essence  of  nature,  and  is  permanently  manifested  in  nature; 
and,  in  living  reciprocity  and  united  with  training,  it  should 
express  and  demonstrate  the  fact  that  the  same  law  rules  both 
(the  divine  principle  and  nature),  as  it  does  nature  and  man. 
Education  as  a  whole,  by  means  of  instruction,  should  bring 
to  man's  consciousness,  and  render  efficient  in  his  life,  the 
fact  that  man  and  nature  proceed  from  God  and  are  con- 
ditioned by  him — that  both  have  their  being  in  God. 

Thus,  with  much  repetition,  Froebel,  throughout 
his  book,  The  Education  of  Man,  affirms  the  reli- 
gious constitution  of  all  nature,  the  child's  included, 

I  The  Education  of  Man,  p.  2. 


30  The  Child  and  His  Religion 

and  the  necessity  of  basing  education  upon  this 
affirmation.  It  is  this  fact  that  makes  the  kinder- 
garten virtually  a  religious  institution,  the  one  really 
religious  institution  in  our  educational  system.  For 
the  average  kindergartner,  Froebel  is  not  merely 
the  founder  of  a  new  type  of  infant  training.  He  is 
the  prophet  of  a  new  religion  that  unifies  nature  and 
the  human  spirit.  The  Education  of  Man  is  the 
kindergartner's  Bible,  and  there  can  be  no  question 
but  that  it  is  thus  far  the  most  complete  expression  of 
an  educational  creed  that  is  religious,  and  yet  has  in 
itself  the  germs  of  scientific  culture.  If  ever  religious 
education  and  secular  education  are  brought  into 
harmony,  it  will  be  upon  some  such  basis  as  Froebel's 
educational  philosophy. 

Science  and  natural  religion. — The  attitude  of  the 
educational  reformers  toward  natural  religion  has 
been  vindicated  by  modern  science,  just  as  we  have 
found  to  be  the  case  with  the  doctrine  of  interest. 
Science,  whose  field  of  work  is  nature,  and  whose 
method  is  an  objective  study  of  the  phenomena  of 
nature,  is  bound  not  alone  by  its  premises  but  by  the 
very  laws  of  mind,  to  discover  God  in  nature,  as  well 
as  man's  approach  to  God  through  natural  methods. 
It  is  a  fundamental  instinct  of  the  human  soul  to  seek 
unity  of  knowledge  and  belief,  as  it  is  to  seek  unity 
of  life.  Hence,  from  the  beginning  of  its  history, 
science  has  been  implicitly  religious.  In  putting  its 
insistent  questions  to  nature,  it  has  been  engaged 
in  a  quest  for  God,  and  the  ways  of  life  that  will  bring 


Natural  Religion  0}  Children  31 

man  into  harmony  with  his  Creator%  Just  as  soon  as 
these  questions  are  put  to  human  nature,  it  is  found 
that  the  mind  of  man  brings  to  hght,  in  its  instincts, 
and  fundamental  processes  of  reasoning,  what  is 
everywhere  suggested  in  nature.  There  is  a  God — 
intelhgent,  purposeful,  benevolent — who  is  working 
in  and  through  nature,  and  most  immediately  and 
personally  in  the  life  of  man.  That  is  to  say,  the 
divine  content  of  nature  comes  to  consciousness  in 
its  highest  creature,  man.  Man  is  religious  because 
the  so-called  natural  world  of  which  he  is  a  part  is  a 
supernatural  world,  progressively  incarnating  the 
life  of  Him  who  is  Creator  alike  of  body  and  spirit. 
The  first  scientists  to  discover  that  man  is  naturally 
religious  were  the  students  of  primitive  races.  Such 
were  the  anthropologists,  the  ethnologists,  the  stu- 
dents of  comparative  religion.  Whether  as  mission- 
aries, travelers,  college  and  university  investigators, 
or  experts  connected  with  bureaus  of  government 
research,  these  men  collected  masses  of  facts  bearing 
upon  the  religious  lives  of  the  lower  races,  and,  in- 
deed, of  all  non-Christian  peoples.  These  facts 
were  sifted  out  and  interpreted,  and  the  common 
elements  in  the  religions  of  many  diverse  tribes  and 
nations  were  brought  to  view.  Thus,  facts,  principles, 
and  laws  were  derived  which  constitute  the  subject- 
matter  of  a  new  science,  that  of  comparative  religion; 
and  comparative  religion  afl&rms  that  mankind 
everywhere  has  certain  instincts,  beliefs,  customs, 
and    institutions   that  are   religious,   and   that  are 


32  The  Child  and  His  Religion 

essentially  identical  wherever  found.  Such  is  the 
instinct  to  endow  all  visible  phenomena  with  spirit, 
which  has  been  called  animism,  and  which  men  like 
Professor  Tylor'  believe  is  the  tap-root  of  all  religion. 
Such  are  the  ideas  of  God  and  the  survival  of  death, 
which,  in  various  forms,  are  universal.  Such  are 
worship,  burial,  and  other  customs  growing  out  of 
these  beliefs,  with  their  appropriate  institutions  and 
systems  of  social  control. 

Closely  related  to  this  group  of  scientists  are  those 
students  of  genetic  psychology  who  have  applied  the 
principles  and  methods  of  that  branch  of  science  to 
the  study  of  children's  religious  natures.  Follow- 
ing the  clue  to  the  essential  elements  of  the  religious 
life  supplied  by  comparative  religion,  they  have 
observed  the  questions,  sayings,  customs,  and  conduct 
of  children,  to  find  evidence  that  the  child  naturally 
shares  in  the  religious  consciousness  of  the  race. 
The  results  have  been  no  less  conclusive  than  in  the 
case  of  comparative  religion.  For  the  purposes  of 
religious  education,  they  are  even  more  significant 
since  they  put  us  in  possession  of  facts  and  laws  of 
life  that  illuminate  the  practical  problems  of  religious 
nurture  in  the  home,  school,  and  church. 
^  Animism. — First  among  these  results  of  the  study 
of  children's  religious  nature  is  the  conclusion  that 
the  child,  like  primitive  man,  is  animistic.  He 
instinctively  endows  the  world,  both  animate  and 
inanimate,  with  spirit  and  personality.     The  rocks, 

'  Primitive  CiiUure. 


Natural  Religion  of  Children  33 

flowers,  and  trees;  the  stars,  moon,  and  sun;  the 
clouds,  wind,  and  rain;  his  own  playthings,  whether 
doll,  sled,  or  marbles — are,  at  various  times  and  in 
varying  degrees,  felt  to  have  life,  and  to  think,  feel, 
and  act  like  himself.  Careful,  systematic  observa- 
tion would  doubtless  reveal  this  instinct  in  every 
child,  although  it  is  manifested  more  clearly  in  some 
children  than  in  others;  while,  in  general,  the  sur- 
roundings and  example  of  adult  life  tend  to  repress 
and  obscure  it. 

The  heavenly  bodies  frequently  appeal  to  this 
instinct  in  children,  just  as  they  do  in  the  case  of 
primitive  peoples.  The  moon,  for  most  children,  is 
alive.  It  looks  down  upon  them  from  the  sky.  It 
follows  them  about.  A  little  girl  of  five  years  said  to 
me  one  night:  "Why  does  the  moon  always  seem 
to  follow  us?  Does  it  really  see  us?"  The  stars 
are  the  eyes  of  the  blue  sky,  peeping  out  from  behind 
the  clouds,  twinkling  merrily  or  moist  with  the  mists 
of  evening.  The  same  little  girl  asked  me  on  one 
occasion  if  the  stars  did  not  sometimes  wink  at 
children.  The  large  number  of  poems  and  prose  se- 
lections in  children's  literature  that  deal  with  personi- 
fications of  the  moon,  stars,  and  sun,  witness  to  this 
animistic  spirit  in  children.  Rain  and  snow  suggest 
to  the  child  all  sorts  of  personal  qualities.  It  is  hard 
for  them  to  resist  the  feeling  that  a  summer  shower 
comes  with  a  sort  of  personal  benevolence  to  water  the 
dry  flowers  and  grass.  A  little  girl  of  four  years  illus- 
trated this  feeling  on  a  certain  occasion.     There  was 


34  The  Child  and  His  Religion 

a  thunder  shower  after  a  long  dry  spell.  The  rain 
was  pattering  on  the  sidewalk  outside  the  house. 
The  child  stretched  forth  her  hands  toward  the  rain- 
drops and  said :  "  Come,  good  rain,  and  water  our 
plants!"  Flowers  and  trees  have  individuality  for 
most  children,  if  not  for  all.  Ruth's  mamma  found 
her  sitting  among  the  wild  geraniums,  some  distance 
from  the  house.  "What  are  you  doing,  Ruth?" 
"  I'm  sitting  by  the  flowers.  They  are  lonesome  and 
like  to  have  me  with  them,  doriH  you  know?"  At 
another  time  she  said:  "Mamma,  these  daisies  seem 
to  look  up  at  me  and  talk  to  me.  Perhaps  they 
want  us  to  kiss  them."  On  one  occasion  she  said  to 
her  brother,  who  was  in  the  act  of  gathering  some 
flowers  she  claimed  for  herself,  "  I  don't  think  it  nice 
to  break  off  those  poor  flowers.  They  like  to  live 
just  as  well  as  you  do."  The  boy  thus  chided  by  his 
sister  for  gathering  her  flowers,  was  generally  very 
fond  of  plants  and  trees,  and  felt  a  quite  human 
companionship  in  them.  He  could  not  bear  to  see 
flowering  plants  hanging  in  a  broken  condition,  or 
lying  crushed  upon  the  sidewalk.  Even  at  the  age 
of  ten  years,  he  would  still  work  solicitously  over 
flowers  like  the  violets,  bluets,  and  crowfeet,  with 
evident  concern  for  their  comfort. 

Children  often  personify  playthings,  personal 
trinkets,  etc.  Thus  a  girl  mentioned  by  Dr.  Gould 
had  a  habit  of  caressing  some  object  in  her  sleeping- 
room,  as  a  vase,  ornamental  box,  or  piece  of  furniture 
before  retiring  for  the  night.  A  boy  of  three  years 
talked  to  his  sled  and  scolded  it  for  getting  tangled 


Natural  Religion  of  Children  35 

up.  Sometimes  he  would  whip  his  playthings  if 
they  did  not  work  to  suit  him.  Once,  in  a  fit  of 
anger,  he  broke  a  favorite  toy,  and  then  cried  bitterly 
because  he  thought  the  toy  felt  hurt.  The  anger- 
phase  of  animism  is  often  perpetuated  into  adult 
life,  when  grown-up  people  get  mad  at  obstinate 
machinery,  uncertain  fountain  pens,  and  exasperat- 
ing door-locks. 

This  animistic  spirit  in  children  is  the  same  that 
inspired  those  children  of  nature,  the  Greeks,  to 
people  the  oak  trees  with  dryads  and  the  springs  and 
streams  with  nymphs.  It  is  the  same  spirit  that  led 
the  Druids  of  Western  Europe  to  worship  the  trees; 
the  Aztecs,  the  sun;  and  the  ancient  Egyptians  and 
Hindus,  the  waters  of  the  Nile  and  Ganges.  It  is  the 
same  spirit  that  works  among  modern  men,  in  more 
subtle  and  refined  forms,  now  in  poetry,  now  in 
science  itself,  to  give  a  personal,  spiritual,  interpre- 
tation to  nature.  We  see  it  in  Wordsworth's  poems, 
in  some  of  Kingsley's  novels,  in  the  nature  sketches 
of  Charles  Dudley  Warner,  and  in  the  writings  of 
physicists  like  Lord  Kelvin  and  Sir  Oliver  Lodge. 
It  makes  little  difference  what  this  tendency  of  the 
human  mind  is  called.  Some  would  prefer  to  name 
it  anthropomorphism;  others,  perhaps,  fancy  or 
imagination.  The  important  thing  is  that  such  an 
instinct  exists  in  children,  as  among  the  lower  races 
of  mankind,  and,  indeed,  among  the  higher  races — 
in  the  poets,  certain  scientists,  and  others — where 
the  deadening  effects  of  over-intellectualism  have  not 


36  The  Child  and  His  Religion 

blighted  the  naive  feelings  and  instincts  of  the 
natural  man.  Such  an  instinct  witnesses  to  man's 
oneness  with  nature — to  the  great  fundamental  fact 
of  life,  that  the  energy  which  throbs  in  the  human 
intellect  and  emotions,  works  throughout  nature, 
with  the  same  spiritual  purpose,  and  toward  the 
same  spiritual  ends,  that  give  meaning  and  value  to 
man's  own  existence. 

The  instinct  of  causality. — Another  result  of  the 
study  of  children's  religious  nature  is  the  conclusion 
that  the  child  tries  to  discover  a  personal  cause,  to  ex- 
plain the  phenomena  of  the  objective  world  and  its 
own  life.  In  the  language  of  science,  it  seeks  to  satisfy 
its  instinct  of  causality.  In  the  language  of  religion,  it 
seeks  a  creator.  This  instinct  of  causality,  or  quest 
for  a  creator,  is  psychologically  related  to  animism. 
To  endow  the  universe  with  spirit  is  to  point  the 
way  toward  the  discovery  of  a  personal  agency  back 
of  phenomena,  and  working  through  them.  But 
animism,  properly  speaking,  does  not  rise  above  the 
plane  of  instinct  and  feeling.  It  institutes  no  intelli- 
gent inquiry  as  to  the  cause  and  meaning  of  things. 
The  instinct  of  causality  makes  this  additional  de- 
mand. It  is  a  function  of  the  rational  intellect.  It 
wants  to  know  what  power,  what  personality,  brings 
the  phenomena  of  the  universe  to  pass.  It  is  rooted, 
like  the  other  elements  of  the  religious  nature,  in  the 
divine  constitution  of  man.  The  child,  made  in  the 
image  of  his  Creator,  reflecting  the  powers  of  self- 
activity  which  his  Creator  possesses,  sees  in  the  uni- 


Natural  Religion  of  Children  37 

verse  a  personal,  intelligent  agent  at  work.  He  can 
no  more  conceive  of  things  happening  without  the 
direction  of  personal  will,  in  the  cosmic  order,  than 
f  he  can  conceive  of  things  so  happening  in  the  human 
order.  He  is  in  the  midst  of  man's  activities  and  cre- 
ations, and  he  sees  nothing  made,  or  unmade,  with- 
out the  play  of  human  will.  How  can  he  look  upon 
the  cosmos,  of  which  his  own  little  world  is  a  part,  as 
independent  of  those  laws  of  cause  and  effect  that 
condition  human  achievements  ? 

Hence  it  is  that  with  children,  as  with  primitive 
men  everywhere,  we  find  the  question  of  ultimate 
cause,  and  its  answer  in  terms  of  supernatural 
agency.  All  men,  from  the  lowest  to  the  highest, 
have  been  seekers  after  gods,  or  God.  Plutarch 
says : 

I  have  seen  people  without  cities  and  organized  govern- 
ments, or  laws;  but  people  without  shrines  and  deities  I  have 
not  seen. 

Ratzel  says: 

We  cannot  analyze  a  single  race  on  its  spiritual  side  with- 
out laying  bare  the  germs  and  root-fibres  of  religion.  Eth- 
nography knows  no  race  devoid  of  religion.  Religion  is 
everywhere  connected  with  man's  craving  for  causaUty,  which 
will  ever  be  looking  for  the  cause,  or  causer,  of  everj'thing 
that  comes  to  pass.  Thus  its  deepest  roots  come  into  con- 
tact with  science,  and  are  profoundly  intertwined  with  the 
sense  of  nature.  From  scientific  conviction  we  must  unhesi- 
tatingly endorse  the  verdict  of  Von  Strauss:  "Complete 
absence  of  religion,  true  atheism,  may  be  the  result  of  an 
undermining,    soul-deadening    overculture;     but    never    the 


;^8  The  Child  and  His  Religion 

effect  of  crude  barbarism.  This  always  retains  the  craving 
for  religion,  with  the  corresponding  faculty  for  religion,  how- 
ever faultily  and  confusedly  this  may  operate."' 

Von  Hartmann  says : 

The  religious  motive  of  man  necessarily  demands  an  object 
upon  which  to  center  its  attention.  This  object  is,  to  use  the 
term  in  a  wide,  but,  we  believe,  a  proper  sense,  "God." 
Employing  the  term  thus,  it  includes  the  most  primitive  notion 
of  the  lowest  savage  as  well  as  the  highest  conception  of  the 
most  cultured  races. 

It  is  this  universal  demand  for  a  final  cause,  a  creator, 
that  comes  to  light  in  the  child's  life;  and  this 
demand  becomes  not  only  a  principal  factor  in  his 
religion,  but  also  in  all  the  activities  which  have  to 
do  with  the  ultimate  problems  of  intellect  and  feeling. 
A  few  illustrations  will  suffice  to  make  clear  this  in- 
stinct of  causality  in  children.  I  draw  first  of  all  upon 
notes  taken  on  the  religious  development  of  a  boy 
between  the  ages  of  three  and  six  years.  At  the  end 
of  the  third  year,  while  visiting  Niagara  Falls  with 
his  parents,  this  boy  showed  his  first  interest  in  the 
cause  of  things.  While  watching  the  water  of  the 
Falls  from  Prospect  Park,  he  said :  "  Mamma,  who 
pours  the  water  over  Niagara  Falls?"  We  may 
imagine  similar  questions  being  asked  by  the  Ameri- 
can Indian  ages  previous,  and  answered  in  terms  of 
"Gitchie  Manitou,  the  Mighty."  From  this  begin- 
ning, the  boy  during  the  next  three  years  seemed  to 
be  trying  to  make  himself  clear  upon  the  question 
of  where  things  come  from  originally,  and  who  keeps 

■  History  of  Mankind,  Vol.  I,  p.  40. 


Natural  Religion  oj  Children  39 

the  world  going.  "Who  makes  the  birds?"  "Who 
made  the  very  first  bird  ?"  "Who  fixed  their  wings 
so  they  can  fly  ?  "  "  Who  takes  care  of  the  birds  and 
rabbits  in  the  winter  when  snow  is  on  the  ground  ?" 
"Who  makes  the  grass  grow?"  "Who  makes  the 
trees?"  "Who  makes  them  shed  their  leaves  and 
then  get  them  back  again  ?"  "  Who  made  the  sand 
and  rocks  in  Forest  Park ?"  "Who  made  the  Con- 
necticut River?"  "Who  keeps  it  from  running 
dry  ?  "  "  Who  makes  it  thunder  ?  "  "  Who  put  the 
moon  in  the  sky  ?  "  "  Who  made  the  whole  world  ?  " 
"  Who  made  people  ?  "  "Who  made  me?"  "Does 
God  make  everything?"  "Who  made  God?" 
"  Was  God  already  made  ? "  "Is  God  everywhere  ? " 
Such  were  the  questions  asked  again  and  again,  with 
all  sorts  of  comments  in  reply  to  the  answers  that 
were  given  him.  The  question  of  what  is  the  origin 
of  things  was  seldom  or  never  asked.  It  was  always 
who;  ;and  when  the  personal  cause  he  was  seeking 
was  named  "God"  in  connection  with  numerous 
objects,  he  finally  generalized  by  asking  if  God 
makes  everything. 

During  the  years  these  observations  were  made, 
this  boy  had  no  contact  whatever  with  ordinary  re- 
ligious instruction.  The  development  of  his  instinct 
of  causality  was  left  to  itself,  such  answers  being 
given  to  his  questions,  and  such  comments  being 
made  upon  topics  he  was  interested  in,  as  his  under- 
standing seemed  fitted  to  receive.  In  most  observa- 
tions recorded  of  children's  reasonings  about  God, 


40  The  Child  and  His  Religion 

however,  it  is  not  clear  how  much  of  their  thought 
is  original  and  how  much  is  colored  by  their  religious 
instruction.  Even  where  the  latter  is  the  case,  how- 
ever, there  is  always  some  suggestion  of  the  child's 
natural  attitude.  Professor  Sully'  tells  of  a  boy, 
four  and  a  half  years  old,  who  was  in  the  habit  of  tak- 
ing knives  from  his  mother's  kitchen  and  using  them. 
At  last  the  mother  said:  "L.,  you  will  cut  your 
fingers,  and  if  you  do  they  won't  grow  again."  The 
boy  thought  for  a  moment  and  then  replied:  "But 
God  would  make  them  grow.  He  made  me,  so  he 
could  mend  my  fingers,  and  if  I  were  to  cut  the  ends 
off,  I  should  say,  'God,  God,  come  to  your  work,'  and 
he  would  say,  'All  right.'"  In  Extracts  from  a 
Father's  Diary,  quoted  by  Professor  Sully  in  his 
Studies  of  Childhood,  we  find  this  note  on  the  reason- 
ing of  a  five-year-old  boy  about  God : 

One  day  he  asked  how  God  made  us  and  put  flesh  on  us, 
and  made  what  is  inside  us.  He  then  proceeded  to  invent  a 
little  theory  of  creation.  "I  suppose  he  made  stone  men  and 
iron  men  first,  and  then  real  men."  This  myth  might  readily 
suggest  that  the  child  had  been  hearing  about  the  stone  and 
iron  age,  and  about  sculptors  first  modeling  their  statues  in 
other  material.  It  seems  probable,  however,  that  it  was 
invented  by  a  purely  childish  thought  as  a  way  of  clearing  up 
the  mystery  of  the  living,  thinking  man.^ 

In  President  Hall's  study^  of  the  "Contents  of 
Children's  Minds  on  Entering  School,"  there  are 

'  Studies  oj  Childhood,  pp.  127,  128. 

»  P.  478. 

3  Pedagogical  Seminary,  Vol.  I,  pp.  139-73. 


Natural  Religion  of  Children  41 

many  incidental  references  to  this  subject.  Some 
children  think  that  God  takes  the  sun  out  of  the 
sky  at  night,  lights  the  stars  with  matches,  makes  the 
rain  fall,  sends  the  lightning,  creates  babies  in 
heaven,  takes  people  to  himself  when  they  die,  etc., 
etc.  And  Professor  Barnes  sums  up  the  topic  in  the 
following  words: 

I  believe  a  child  has  a  native  need  for  a  theology,  and  that 
if  he  is  not  given  one  he  will  create  it.  He  early  comes  to  the 
point  where  he  seeks  ultimate  origins  and  ends.  "I  do  not 
know  if  Mother  Nature  made  me,"  said  the  httle  blind  Helen 
Kellar,  "I  think  my  mother  got  me  from  heaven,  but  I  do  not 
know  where  that  place  is.  I  know  that  daisies  and  pansies 
come  from  seeds  which  have  been  put  in  the  ground;  but 
children  do  not  grow  out  of  the  ground,  I  am  sure.  I  have 
never  seen  a  plant  child !  But  I  cannot  tell  who  made  Mother 
Nature,  can  you?"  The  following  are  among  the  questions 
asked  by  one  of  my  little  friends  when  she  was  between  four 
and  five  years  old:  "How  did  the  moon  come  in  the  sky?" 
"Why  do  we  die?"  "Why  are  things  made  to  be  killed?" 
"Who  made  the  first  fish  egg,  and  how  was  it  made  ?"  "Where 
did  I  come  from  ?"  "Who  was  the  mother  of  the  first  baby 
there  ever  was?"  "When  the  first  mother  was  a  baby,  who 
was  her  mother?"  "How  did  the  first  lady  in  the  world 
learn  manners?"  These  are  but  typical  of  the  questions 
asked  by  any  child,  and  a  theology  serves  to  merge  them  all 
in  the  larger  theological  and  philosophical  problems  of 
adult  Hfe.  The  deeper  demand  which  drove  the  little  George 
Sand  to  develop  an  elaborate  theology  and  ritual,  and 
which  drove  Goethe,  at  seven,  to  erect  an  altar  and  enact 
the  part  of  a  high  priest,  must  surely  come  to  imaginative 
children  who  find  themselves  so  constantly  hemmed  in  by 
the  phenomenal.' 

I  Studies  in  Education,  Vol.  II,  p.  287. 


42  The  Child  and  His  Religion 

The  instinct  of  immortality. — A  third  conclusion 
drawn  by  genetic  psychology  from  its  study  of  chil- 
dren's religious  nature,  is  that  the  child  believes  in 
the  continuity  of  personal  existence.  Adult  religion 
does  not  have  to  teach  it  the  immortality  of  the  soul, 
any  more  than  it  has  to  teach  it  the  idea  of  a  God. 
It  is  naturally  endowed  with  a  sense  of  its  immor- 
tality.    Professor  Sully  says: 

A  child  cannot  accept  an  absolute  beginning  of  things,  and 
....  he  is  equally  incapable  of  believing  in  an  absolute 
ending.  He  knows  that  we  begin  our  earthly  lives  as  babies. 
Well,  the  babies  must  come  from  something,  and  when  we 
die  we  must  pass  into  something. ^ 

In  Extracts  from  a  Fathers  Diary,  quoted  by 
Professor  Sully,  and  already  referred  to,  we  find 
this  dialogue  between  a  boy  five  years  old  and  his 
mother : 

C.     "Why  must  people  die,  mamma?" 

M.  "They  get  worn  out,  and  so  can't  live  always,  just 
as  the  plants  fade  and  die." 

C.  "Well,  but  why  can't  they  come  to  life  again  just  hke 
the  flowers?" 

M.     "The  same  flowers  don't  come  to  life  again,  dear." 

C.  "Well,  the  litde  seed  out  of  the  flower  drops  into  the 
earth  and  springs  up  again  into  a  flower.  Why  can't  people 
do  like  that?" 

M.     "Most  people  get  very  tired  and  want  to  sleep  forever." 

C.  "Oh!  I  shan't  want  to  sleep  forever,  and  when  I  am 
buried  I  shall  try  to  wake  up  again;  and  there  won't  be  any 
earth  on  my  eyes,  will  there,  mamma?" 

In  my  own  notes^on  the  religious  development  of  a 

'  Studies  of  Childhood,  pp.  io6,  107. 


Natural  Religion  of  Children  43 

boy,  referred  to  under  the  previous  topic,  I  find  this 
record : 

The  first  illustration  of  his  attitude  toward  death  was  at 
the  beginning  of  his  fourth  year,  when  he  found  a  dead  bird. 
"Mamma,  what  is  the  matter  with  the  bird  ?"  "It  is  dead." 
"What  does  'dead'  mean?"  "The  Httle  bird's  Hfe  has  gone 
out  of  its  body."  "Where  has  the  bird  gone?"  It  was  clear 
that  he  had  no  idea  in  his  mind  to  which  he  could  refer  this 
new  thing  his  mother  was  trying  to  explain,  and  nothing  she 
said  satisfied  his  questioning.  A  few  hours  later,  he  opened 
up  the  subject  again  by  saying,  "Will  the  dead  come  oH  the 
little  bird,  mamma  ?  "  He  had  noticed  the  ruffled  condition  of 
the  bird's  plumage  and  was  evidently  wondering  if  it  would 
change  back  to  its  natural  appearance.  His  mother  told  him 
she  thought  the  dead  would  come  off  by  and  by.  Then  he 
asked,  "Mamma,  when  you  die  like  the  bird,  will  the  dead 
come  off  you?" 

A  few  months  after  this,  the  boy  had  his  first 
experience  with  the  death  of  a  human  being.  An 
old  lady,  Grandma  W.,  whom  he  knew  well,  had 
died.  The  same  class  of  questions  he  had  previously 
asked  about  the  dead  bird  he  now  asked  about 
Grandma  W.  "  Where  has  she  gone  ? "  "To  God's 
home."  "Where  is  God's  home?"  "O,  God's 
home  is  everywhere — up  among  the  stars,  here  on 
earth,  all  about  us.  It  is  an  invisible  home,  to  us. 
We  can't  see  it."  "How  did  Grandma  W.  get  to 
God's  home?  Did  he  come  and  get  her?"  "No, 
he  did  not  come.  He  was  right  by  her  when  she 
died.  She  closed  her  tired,  sick  eyes,  and  when  she 
opened  them  again,  she  saw  God,  who  was  with  her 
all  the  time."     "What  is  in  that  box  they  are  carry- 


44  The  Child  and  His  Religion 

ing  from  the  house?"  "Grandma  W.'s  body." 
"Where  are  they  taking  her?"  "To  Oak  Grove 
Cemetery."  "But,  Mamma,  why  are  they  taking 
her  there?  What  will  they  do  with  her?"  "It  is 
Grandma  W.'s  body  they  are  taking  to  the  cemetery. 
They  will  bury  it."  "But,  Mamma,  is  God  in  the 
ground  ?  Grandma  W.  can't  live  in  the  ground,  can 
she?" 

In  these  instances  it  is  clear  that  the  child  could 
not  grasp  the  idea  that  either  the  bird  or  Grandma 
W.  had  ceased  to  exist.  Death  might  take  the  animal 
or  person  away,  but  they  still  lived  for  the  child  in  a 
sense  hardly  less  real  than  when  they  were  before  his 
eyes.  One  is  reminded  of  Wordsworth's  poem 
about  the  little  cottage  girl,  who,  with  several  of  her 
brothers  and  sisters  dead,  still  insisted  that  there  was 
an  unbroken  family  of  seven. 

Professor  Street,  in  his  Genetic  Study  of  Immor- 
tality,^ says  of  the  group  of  twenty-five  children  he 
personally  studied:  "It  is  very  interesting  and  sug- 
gestive to  note  that  they  had  no  suspicion  that  their 
own  existence  would  ever  cease."  "  It  seems,  then," 
he  adds,  "  that  man  has  to  learn  his  mortality  rather 
than  his  immortality."  The  conclusions  of  this 
author,  based  upon  the  testimony  of  deaf-mutes,  the 
little  children  personally  studied,  and  the  self-analysis 
of  a  considerable  number  of  adults  are  as  follows: 

(i)  The  concept  of  immortality  has  a  growth  that  parallels 
that  of  the  race;   (2)  Its  origin  is  the  product  of  the  psychical 
I  Pedagogical  Seminary,  Vol.  VI,  pp.  267-313. 


Natural  Religion  of  Children  45 

activities  of  man  himself,  and  not  the  fruit  of  a  body  of  innate 
ideas.  This  does  not  imply,  however,  that  there  is  not  some 
deep,  fundamental  instinct,  which  may  have  been  the  dynamic 
power  impelling  him  to  such  a  conclusion;^  (3)  In  the  returns 
[to  questions  asked  adults]  much  mention  is  made  of  the  testi- 
mony of  an  inner  revelation  giving  clear  evidence  of  the  truth 
of  personal  continuity.  It  is  possible  to  explain  this  psycho- 
logically as  the  accumulated  heredity  of  countless  ages, 
joined  with  the  autogenetic  longing  for  perpetuity.  However, 
until  it  can  be  shown  that  there  is  no  teleology  in  the  world, 
and  that  there  is  no  divine  hand  at  the  helm,  such  testimony 
must  be  accepted,  though  it  cannot  be  empirically  established. 

The  inability  of  the  child  to  conceive  of  its  own 
or  other  lives  as  ceasing  to  exist,  may,  of  course,  have 
various  interpretations.  It  seems  to  me,  how^ever, 
that  it  is  open  to  the  same  interpretation  that  has 
already  been  placed  upon  the  animistic  impulse  and 
the  sense  of  causality.  It  is  an  innate  endowment, 
an  instinct  of  immortality.  All  races  of  mankind 
have  believed  in  some  kind  of  survival  of  death. 
This  belief,  according  to  some  students  of  the  prob- 
lem, has  had  a  most  important  influence  in  the  evolu- 
tion of  civilization.  To  say  nothing  of  its  effects 
upon  the  lives  of  men,  morally  considered,  the  cus- 
toms and  laws  associated  with  such  a  belief  must  have 
had  a  vastly  conserving  effect  upon  human  society. 
It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  one  important  measure 
of  a  people's  racial  fitness  has  been  their  belief  in  the 
survival  of  death.  The  significance  of  this  racial 
phase  of  the  problem  has  not  yet  been  fully  appre- 
ciated in  the  arguments  for  and  against  the  belief  in 

I  Italics  mine. 


46  The  Child  and  His  Religion 

the  immortality  of  the  soul.  But,  in  addition,  to 
the  racial  belief  in  the  survival  of  death  as  accounting 
for  the  child's  sense  of  immortality,  there  is  the 
general  philosophical  consideration  already  pre- 
sented. The  child  is  a  part  of  a  world-process  which 
progressively  unfolds  the  divine  consciousness.  God 
is  immanent  in  the  human  soul,  and  God  is  eternal. 
The  child  instinctively  feels  the  values  of  a  life  that 
shares  the  nature  of  its  creator.  Science  predicates 
an  instinct  of  self-preservation  as  fundamental  to  the 
struggle  for  existence.  But  the  instinct  of  self-pres- 
ervation, translated  into  its  religious  equivalent, 
becomes  an  instinct  of  immortality,  because  the 
struggle  for  existence  is  an  eternal  process. 

Whatever  interpretation  may  be  placed  upon  the 
child's  attitude  toward  death,  however,  the  fact  itself 
is  significant.  It  is  an  enormously  economical  factor 
in  the  child's  life,  just  as  it  has  been  in  the  life  of  the 
race,  and  must  have  a  similar  value  in  fitting  the 
child  to  survive  in  its  individual  struggle  for  existence. 
Its  importance  for  religious  education  has  not  been 
fully  appreciated,  if,  indeed,  in  some  quarters,  it  has 
been  recognized  at  all. 

Faith  and  good-will. — Such  are  the  principal 
elements  of  natural  religion  that  have  thus  far 
received  the  attention  of  scientific  students.  They 
are  fundamental  factors,  it  seems  to  me,  in  all 
religion,  however  highly  developed  may  be  the  type. 
If  a  mind  feels  instinctively  the  spiritual  quality  of 
things  and  forces,  if  it  puts  a  personal,  intelligent 


Natural  Religion  oj  Children  47 

cause  back  of  the  phenomena  of  the  world,  and  if  it 
believes  instinctively  in  its  personal  survival  of 
death,  that  mind  is  essentially  religious,  and,  under 
proper  conditions,  will  direct  its  feeling,  thinking, 
and  conduct  according  to  the  religious  standards  of 
life.  There  are  other  qualities  of  the  child's  nature, 
however,  more  general  in  character,  which  have  very 
important  relations  to  religion,  and  which  are  dis- 
tinguishing characteristics  of  childhood.  Such  are 
especially  the  qualities  of  faith  and  good-will,  with- 
out which  religion,  in  the  Christian  sense  of  the  term, 
is  unthinkable.  It  remains  briefly  to  consider  these 
qualities. 

That  the  child's  natural  attitude  toward  the  world 
is  one  of  faith  and  good-will  is  evident  to  the  most 
casual  observer.  If  one  considers  this  attitude  in  a 
spirit  of  scientific  inquiry,  the  feeling  provoked  will 
not  simply  be  one  of  affectionate  regard  for  the 
naivete  of  childhood,  but  of  wonder  and  intellectual 
interest.  Why  is  it,  that — in  a  human  society  where 
faith  is  so  uncertain,  and  distrust  so  common;  where 
good-will  depends  so  much  upon  selfish  considera- 
tions, and  jealousy,  suspicion,  and  hatred  are  so  apt 
to  supplant  sympathy,  friendship,  and  benevolence — 
the  unspoiled  human  nature  of  childhood  is  so  full 
of  faith,  so  trustful,  so  prevailingly  good-willed  ? 
Here  is  a  problem  that  the  philosophy  of  innate 
depravity  seems  to  have  overlooked.  And  the 
child  has  faith  and  good-will.  The  great  religious 
verities,  which  we  have  already  found  he  believes 


48  The  Child  and  His  Religion 

in  instinctively,  are  felt  in  such  an  intimate  way  that 
he  reacts  to  them  in  the  spirit  of  faith  and  love.  That 
is  to  say,  they  are  not  mere  fanciful  ideas,  or  intellec- 
tual conceptions,  but  motive  forces  modifying  his 
states  of  mind  and  determining  his  conduct.'  In 
connection  with  a  child's  belief  that  the  animate  and 
inanimate  worlds  are  endowed  with  spirit  and 
personality,  note  his  sense  of  companionship  with 
growing  plants,  trees,  and  other  objects  in  nature. 
As  one  observes  his  attitude  toward  these  things,  he 
cannot  fail  to  see  their  influence  upon  him,  an 
influence  that  is  not  simply  intellectual  or  aesthetic, 
but  also  moral.  He  likes  them  almost,  or  quite,  as 
he  does  persons,  and  his  treatment  of  them  is  not  the 
treatment  of  dead,  senseless  things,  but  of  living, 
feeling,  reasoning  things.  The  plants  that  he  culti- 
vates in  his  garden,  the  flowers  that  he  watches  in 
the  fields,  the  trees  among  whose  branches  he  climbs, 
the  birds  that  he  spies  out  in  the  thickets — are  all 
his  friends,  each  speaking  to  him  in  its  own  way. 
The  effect  upon  his  life  of  such  a  feeling  toward 
natural  objects  is  beyond  estimate.  He  loves  to  be 
among  these  things.  His  soul  is  kept  in  a  healthy 
condition  by  contact  with  them.  He  learns  from 
them  their  wonderful  secrets.  He  receives  from 
them  suggestions  that  affect  advantageously  his  con- 
duct. In  short,  his  instinctive  belief  in  the  spiritual 
relationship  between  himself  and  these  natural 
objects  begets  a  faith  that  saves  him  oftentimes  from 
evil  associations,  from  ignorance,  and  from  idleness. 


Natural  Religion  oj  Children  49 

A  child's  faith  and  good-will  are  manifested  also 
in  connection  with  his  idea  of  a  personal,  intelligent 
power  in  the  world.  In  the  latter  part  of  his  fourth 
year,  a  little  boy  was  awakened  one  night  by  a 
violent  thunderstorm.  He  was  much  frightened,  and 
called  to  his  mother  with  trembling  voice,  "Mamma, 
God  won't  let  the  thunder  hurt  us,  will  he  ?"  When 
assured  that  the  lightning  was  governed  by  God's 
laws,  and  that  there  was  little  or  no  danger,  he 
quieted  down  and  slept  soundly  during  the  rest  of  the 
storm.  So  far  as  was  known,  this  child  had  never 
been  told  that  God  protected  him  under  such  condi- 
tions. It  was  evidently  an  inference  drawn  from  his 
own  thoughts  about  the  personal  influence  he  felt 
to  pervade  the  world.  Similar  evidence  of  this 
child's  belief  in  God's  care  for  him  and  other  people, 
as  well  as  animals,  and  things  generally,  was  plenti- 
ful. Thus  from  time  to  time  he  asked  a  number  of 
questions  as  to  whether  God  liked  him,  how  he  took 
care  of  his  little  sister  before  she  came  into  the  world, 
how  he  got  little  children  to  heaven  when  they  died, 
whether  God  fed  the  squirrels  in  the  winter  when  the 
nuts  were  gone,  how  God  makes  children  good,  how 
he  makes  little  babies,  kittens,  etc.,  grow  up  and 
become  big,  etc.  In  all  such  questions  there  was 
implied  the  most  perfect  faith  that  God  is  in  the 
world,  keeping  it  in  order,  and  caring  for  his  creatures 
in  a  tender  and  benevolent  way.  That  such  faith 
gave  him  a  feeling  of  security  and  courage  in  storms, 
darkness,  sickness,  and  dangers  of  various  kinds,  is 


50  The  Child  and  His  Religion 

certain.  In  other  words,  there  was  present  a  faith 
^  that  saves  from  fear,  discouragement,  and  weakness, 
and  there  was  a  hearty  response  of  good-will  toward 
a  being  thus  able  and  willing  to  order  his  world 
benevolently,  as  well  as  toward  a  world  so  ordered. 
But  the  child's  faith  and  good-will  go  out  to  human 
beings  in  a  larger  measure  than  to  nature,  or  even 
to  God  himself.  His  mind  has  not  learned  to  sum 
up  the  finite  in  the  infinite,  to  rest  his  faith  in  things 
near  at  hand  upon  the  ultimate  cause  of  things. 
And  so  his  faith  and  good-will  find  their  major 
stimulus  in  parents,  brothers  and  sisters,  playmates 
and  friends.  And  how  great  and  beautiful  is  this 
faith  and  this  good-will?  I  have  never  seen  in  a 
^  u-  young  unspoiled  child  any  indications  of  a  disposition 
to  doubt  the  good  intentions  and  honesty  of  people, 
to  mistrust  or  suspect  them,  or  to  ascribe  evil  motives 
to  their  conduct.  That  common  tendency  of  the 
adult  mind  to  think  evil  of  other  people,  to  see  sinister 
motives  in  their  actions,  is  absent  in  the  child.  Even 
when  he  is  punished,  or  mistreated,  he  does  not 
ascribe  the  act  to  bad  intentions,  and  he  harbors  no 
resentment.  Did  any  parent  of  a  young  child,  or 
teacher  in  the  lower  grades  of  the  public  school,  ever 
see  any  inclination  of  the  child  toward  ill-will 
because  of  punishment  ?  Do  not  all  angry  thoughts 
go  with  the  pain  and  the  tears,  if  such  have  arisen  at 
all  ?  Who  is  it  that  first  wants  to  "make  up"  when 
these  little  tragedies  of  human  affection  are  enacted 
between  little  children  and  their  parents  or  teachers  ? 


Natural  Religion  of  Children  51 

The  fact  is,  the  world  is  an  innocent,  good  sort  of 
world  to  the  child.  It  reflects  his  own  simple,  trans- 
parent life.  He  believes  in  it  and  likes  it.  He  does 
not  suspect  it  of  wanting  to  harm  him.  He  is  the 
enemy  of  no  one,  and  does  not  imagine  that  he  has 
any  enemies  in  turn.  True  he  may  find  fault  with 
people.  He  may  get  mad  at  his  parents  or  playmates, 
and  say  or  do  things  that  are  unkind.  He  is  not  an 
angel,  and  he  often  does  very  unangelic  things.  But 
there  is  absolutely  no  bitterness,  no  hatred,  no  grudge, 
no  harboring  of  ill-will,  no  thinking  the  worst.  His 
faith  in  the  essential  honesty,  innocence,  and  good 
intentions  of  human  nature  is,  as  yet,  absolute.  His 
good-will  toward  everything  and  everybody  in  the 
world  about  him  is  abounding. 

The  significance  of  these  qualities  for  religion,  and 
life,  cannot  be  overestimated.  We  have  already  seen 
how  Pestalozzi  thought  that  "faith  and  love  are  in 
the  formation  of  immortal  man  what  the  root  is  for 
the  tree."  The  Apostle  Paul's  majestic  summary  of 
human  virtues  under  the  rubrics  of  faith,  hope,  and 
love  was  not  only  a  religious  but  a  scientific  state- 
ment of  fact.  The  essence  of  social  philosophy  is 
contained  in  the  words  of  the  Angel  of  the  Annuncia- 
tion, "On  earth  peace,  good  will  toward  men!" 
And  Jesus  of  Nazareth  himself  singled  out  these 
qualities,  and  symbolized  them  in  the  child,  when  he 
said :  "  Suffer  little  children,  and  forbid  them  not,  to 
come  unto  me,  for  of  such  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven." 


CHAPTER  III 
CHILDREN'S  INTEREST  IN  THE  BIBLE 

In  the  preceding  chapters,  I  have  aimed  to  suggest 
a  certain  background  philosophy  of  human  Hfe, 
which,  I  beheve,  should  be  the  starting-point  in 
religious  education ;  together  with  the  elements  of  the 
religious  nature  with  which  such  education  primarily 
has  to  do.  I  shall  next  try  to  apply  the  facts  and 
principles  thus  suggested  to  a  study  of  the  subject- 
matter  of  religious  education,  as  drawn  from  the 
Bible. 

The  Bible  and  religious  education. — It  is,  of  course, 
a  theoretical,  as  well  as  a  practical,  demand  of  the 
Christian  religion,  that  the  Bible  shall  be  a  princi- 
pal source  of  religious  culture-material.  The  reason- 
ableness of  this  demand  is  not  apt  to  be  questioned 
by  anyone  who  thinks  seriously  upon  the  subject. 
Whatever  may  be  thought  of  Christianity  as  a  type 
of  religion,  there  can  be  no  question  that  the  civiliza- 
tion we  live  in  is  intimately  identified  with  it.  Nor 
can  there  be  any  question  that  Christianity,  in  its 
origin,  nature,  and  historical  development,  has 
depended  upon  the  Bible.  So  that  neither  Chris- 
tianity nor  Christian  civilization  can  be  accounted 
for  without  a  knowledge  of  the  spirit  and  content  of 
this  book.  The  children  of  any  given  generation  of 
Christians  can  come  to  their  full  heritage,  not  merely 

Si 


54  The  Child  and  His  Religion 

of  religious  beliefs,  but  also  of  literary,  ethical,  social, 
and  political  ideals  and  usages  that  have  grown  up 
along  with  Christianity,  only  by  being  made  thor- 
oughly familiar  with  the  Bible.  This  establishes 
the  claim  of  the  Bible  to  a  generous  recognition  as  a 
great  primary  source  of  ideals,  facts,  and  principles 
necessary  to  a  proper  understanding  and  appropria- 
tion of  the  content  of  Christian  civilization.  Such 
recognition  is  quite  independent  of  religious  con- 
siderations, in  the  ordinary  sense  of  that  term.  It 
must  proceed  from  any  large  view  of  the  many  phases 
of  human  culture  which  western  nations  have  made 
distinctive. 

But  it  is  also  a  theoretical  and  practical  demand 
of  the  Christian  religion  that  this  Bible,  fundamental 
as  is  its  importance  for  religious  education,  shall  be 
used  intelligently.  It  is  not  a  book  so  completely 
transcending  human  experience  that,  as  the  medi- 
aeval bishop  thought,  it  is  independent  of  the  rules  of 
grammar,  or,  as  the  modern  religious  editor  thought, 
independent  of  the  laws  of  mind.  Whatever  theo- 
logical construction  may  be  placed  upon  the  Bible, 
or  whatever  its  importance  for  the  education  of  man- 
kind, it  must  be  brought  into  relationship  with  the 
human  spirit  through  the  same  channels  of  sense, 
intellectual  perceptions,  reasoning  processes,  and 
emotional  response  that  are  employed  in  connection 
with  other  types  of  educational  material.  The 
mediaeval  saint  might  clasp  his  Bible  to  his  breast 
to  ward  off  the  assaults  of  Satan.     The  East  Indian 


Children's  Interest  in  the  Bible  55 

mother  may  still  lay  her  Bible  in  the  cradle  of  her 
babe  to  keep  away  disease.  The  fortune-telling  type 
of  believer  within  our  own  communities  may  open 
his  Bible  at  random  to  find  some  verse  that  will 
decide  the  fortunes  of  a  day  or  lifetime.  The  simple- 
minded  gospel  worker  may  use  Bible  texts  in  revival 
meetings  or  display  them  in  railroad  depots  or  trolley 
cars  as  talismans  of  salvation.  But  the  average 
modern  mind  will  no  longer  accept  the  Bible  as  a 
fetich  or  talisman,  because  it  can  no  longer  believe 
in  fetiches  or  talismans  of  any  kind.  It  has  not 
become  less  religious  or  reverent,  but  more  intelligent 
and  discriminating. 

It  becomes  necessary,  therefore,  in  religious  educa- 
tion to  use  the  Bible  like  any  other  body  of  literature 
that  must  depend,  for  its  understanding  and  influ- 
ence, upon  intelligent  comprehension  and  responsive- 
ness of  feeling.  This  means  that  the  Bible  must  be 
adapted  to  the  pupil  and  not  the  pupil  to  the  Bible — 
that  its  material  must  be  selected  and  imparted 
according  to  the  mental  capacity,  the  emotional  atti- 
tude, the  instinctively  or  rationally  felt  needs  of  the 
learner.  One  important  criterion  by  which  this 
adaptation  may  be  effected  is  the  spontaneous 
interest  of  children  in  the  material  of  the  Bible,  and 
this  criterion  I  have  employed  in  obtaining  the  results 
presented  in  this  chapter.  Starting  from  the  con- 
clusion of  current  scientific  inquiry  as  to  the  meaning 
of  children's  interests,  and  following  the  same  general 
lines  that  have  been  followed  in  the  study  of  chil- 


56  The  Child  and  His  Religion 

dren's  interests  in  the  various  types  of  educational 
material  used  in  the  public  schools,  I  have  attempted 
to  investigate  the  interest  of  children  in  the  Bible. 
The  questions  I  have  kept  before  me  are  the  follow- 
ing: 

1.  How  do  children  feel  toward  the  Old  and  the 
New  Testament,  respectively,  at  different  ages  ? 

2.  How  do  they  feel  toward  the  various  books  of 
the  Bible  at  different  ages? 

3.  How  do  they  feel  toward  the  different  scenes, 
stories,  and  characters  of  the  Bible  at  different  ages  ? 

4.  What  is  the  development  of  interest  in  the 
scenic,  narrative,  and  personal  elements  of  the 
Bible  as  age  advances  ? 

5.  What  is  the  development  of  interest  in  the  per- 
son and  works  of  Jesus  as  age  advances  ? 

A  syllabus  of  questions  was  prepared  in  such  a 
way  as  to  bring  out,  directly  or  indirectly,  the  in- 
formation sought  under  each  of  these  heads.  This 
syllabus  was  put  in  the  hands  of  a  large  number  of 
parents  and  teachers,  with  the  instruction  that  they 
should  extend  their  observations  over  as  long  a 
period  as  possible,  and  should  use  such  special  tests 
as  they  could  in  getting  at  the  preferences  of  children. 
From  the  children  thus  studied  by  others,  and  those 
studied  by  myself,  1,000  were  selected  as  the  basis 
of  this  paper.  Most  of  these  children  live  in  the 
larger  cities  and  towns  of  New  England.  They 
arc  mainly  of  American  parentage,  though  there  are 
inchuled    a    few   Italians   and    French    Canadians. 


Children's  Interest  in  the  Bible  57 

They  are  distributed  among  all  the  evangelical 
denominations,  the  Congregationalists  predominat- 
ing. There  are,  besides,  a  few  Catholics.  The 
children  range  in  age  from  eight  to  twenty,  and  are 
about  equally  distributed  as  to  age  and  sex.  While 
the  study  itself  is  a  tentative  one,  and  no  claim  what- 
ever is  made  that  its  results  are  conclusive,  it  is 
nevertheless  believed  that  the  children  studied  are 
typical,  and  that  the  data  afford  a  reasonably 
accurate  illustration  of  children's  Bible  interests 
within  the  ages  and  classes  represented. 

Choice  between  the  Old  and  the  New  Testament. — 
I  have  based  my  estimate  of  children's  choice  between 
the  main  divisions  of  the  Bible  upon  three  classes  of 
facts:  (i)  Their  own  direct  statements  as  to  their 
preference;  (2)  indirect  evidence  secured  through 
their  choice  of  Bible  scenes,  stories,  and  characters; 
and  (3)  the  judgment  of  teachers.  At  first  thought,  a 
child's  statement  that  he  likes  one  part  of  the  Bible 
better  than  another  may  seem  to  have  little  value. 
And  yet,  when  we  look  at  the  matter  from  the  stand- 
point of  every-day  experience,  is  there  not  every  rea- 
son for  thinking  that  the  average  child,  in  the  Chris- 
tian home  or  Sunday  school,  knows  what  he  likes, 
or  does  not  like,  in  the  Bible  as  in  other  things? 
When  the  schoolboy  says  he  likes  United  States 
history  better  than  arithmetic,  or  vice  versa,  there  is 
no  reason  for  doubting  the  genuineness  of  his  pref- 
erence. When  the  boy  says  he  likes  to  read  the  life 
of  Daniel  Boone,  or  the  story  of  Robinson  Crusoe, 


58  The  Child  and  His  Religion 

better  than  a  treatise  on  physics,  we  do  not  hesitate 
to  accept  his  statement  as  significant.  We  adults 
often  forget  that  children's  likes  and  dislikes  are  more 
spontaneous  than  our  own,  and  that  they  are  apt  to 
be  much  less  disguised.  There  has  nothing  im- 
pressed me  more  in  looking  over  the  returns  received 
from  children  than  the  perfect  candor  of  their 
answers.  This  was  not  always  the  case  in  the  re- 
turns received  from  adults.  The  latter  often  hesi- 
tated to  express  a  preference,  giving  reasons  that 
indicated  clearly  a  feeling  that  it  was  not  just  the 
proper  thing  to  like  one  part  of  the  Bible  better  than 
another.  Every  part  of  the  Bible  is  holy;  therefore, 
the  properly  constituted  man  or  woman  should  like 
one  as  well  as  another.  The  typical  child  is  not 
troubled  with  any  such  feeling  toward  the  Bible. 
If  he  doesn't  like  some  portion  of  it,  he  says  so;  or 
if  he  doesn't  like  any  of  it,  he  says  so.  This  may  be 
additional  evidence  of  his  innate  depravity.  I 
merely  state  the  fact.  A  child's  statement  that  he 
likes  the  Old  Testament  better  than  the  New,  or 
vice  versa,  seems  to  me  therefore  to  be  worthy  of 
acceptance  as  an  index  of  his  interest.  When  such 
a  statement  is,  in  general,  confirmed  by  the  indirect 
evidence  of  other  preferences  and  by  the  testimony 
of  teachers,  one's  conclusions  ought  to  rest  upon  a 
fairly  substantial  basis. 

At  eight  years  old,  the  majority  of  children  of  both 
sexes  prefer  the  New  Testament;  that  is  to  say,  60 
per  cent,  of  the  boys  and  72  per  cent,  of  the  girls.    The 


Children'' s  Interest  in  the  Bible  59 

interest  in  the  New  Testament  declines,  however, 
during  the  next  few  years,  reaching  its  minimum  at 

14,  in  the  case  of  boys,  and  at  12,  in  the  case  of  the 
girls.  At  this  point,  32  per  cent,  of  the  boys  and  40 
per  cent,  of  the  girls  prefer  the  New  Testament.    At 

15,  the  interest  of  the  boys  remains  about  the  same 
as  at  14,  but  thereafter  it  rises  rapidly  and  steadily 
until  at  20  years  8S  per  cent,  prefer  the  New  Testa- 
ment. The  girls'  interest  rises  slowly  from  12  to 
14,  and  thereafter  rises  even  more  rapidly  than  the 
boys',  until  at  20  years  97  per  cent,  prefer  the  New 
Testament.  At  8  years,  40  per  cent,  of  the  boys  and 
28  per  cent,  of  the  girls  prefer  the  Old  Testament. 
From  8  years  on,  the  interest  in  the  Old  Testament 
steadily  rises,  reaching  its  maximum  at  13,  in  the  case 
of  the  boys,  and  at  12  in  the  case  of  the  girls.  At  this 
point,  63  per  cent,  of  the  boys  and  46  per  cent,  of  the 
girls  prefer  the  Old  Testament.  Thereafter,  in  the 
case  of  both  sexes,  the  interest  steadily  declines,  until 
at  the  age  of  20,  12  per  cent,  of  the  boys  and  3  per 
cent,  of  the  girls  express  a  preference  for  the  Old  Tes- 
tament. From  13  to  19  years,  some  of  the  boys  say 
they  have  no  choice,  the  maximum  of  such  being 
reached  at  15  and  16.  In  the  case  of  the  girls, 
this  period  of  uncertainty  reaches  from  10  to  17, 
the  maximum  being  reached  at  11  and  12.  A  graphic 
presentation  of  these  results  is  given  in  Charts 
I  and  II. 

What   interpretation   may  we  place   upon  these 
results  ?    To  begin  with,  the  interest  of  the  youngest 


6o 


The  Child  and  His  Religion 


children  in  the  New  Testament  is  probably  not  a 
general  interest  in  that  division  of  the  Bible.  It 
centers  rather  in  the  Infant  Jesus.  A  child  is  always 
of  interest  to  other  children,  whether  in  life  or  story. 
The  scenes  and  incidents  of  the  Bible  relating  to 


CHART  I 
Bovs'  Choice  between  the  Old  and  the  New  Testament 


100 


AGE  8         9        10        I 
. — ..OLD 


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\         12        13        H        15        16        17        18         19        20 
TEST.  NEW  TEST NO  CHOICE. 


childhood  are  prime  favorites  with  most  of  the 
younger  children  that  have  been  studied.  Thus,  the 
birth  of  Jesus,  the  finding  of  Moses  by  Pharaoh's 
daughter,  Jesus  blessing  little  children  and  the  flight 
into  Egypt  are  among  the  most  commonly  mentioned. 
To  this  natural  interest  in  the  childhood  of  the  Bible 


Children's  Interest  in  the  Bible 


6i 


must  be  added  the  special  interest  derived  through 
Christian  art  and  literature,  dealing  with  such  events 
as  the  Annunciation,  the  Nativity,  and  the  Flight  into 
Egypt,  much  of  which  the  average  child  has  some 
acquaintance  with.     Besides  these  aids  to  interest. 


CHART  II 
Girls'  Choice  between  the  Old  and  the  New  Testament 


100 


40 


30 


20 


y 

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AG£   8          9        10         U        12        13        I*        15        16        17        18       19    ,    20 
NEW  TEST OLD  TEST. NO  CHOICE.. 

we  must  also  take  into  account  the  associations  of 
Christmas  time,  which  give  the  birth  and  childhood 
of  Jesus  a  unique  place  in  children's  affections.  It 
is  not  surprising,  therefore,  that  the  New  Testament, 
which  contains  the  stories  and  scenes  relating  to  a 
child  naturally  interesting,  and  rendered  more  so 


IK>S  fi^GJSUHS,  GHIl* 


62  The  Child  and  His  Religion 

by  the  art,  literature,  and  customs  of  Christian  civili- 
zation, should  be  preferred  by  so  many  of  the  younger 
children. 

This  element  of  attractiveness  aside,  however,  it  is 
probable  that  the  New  Testament  does  not  naturally 
appeal  so  strongly  to  children  as  does  the  Old.  So 
early  as  8  years,  40  per  cent,  of  the  boys  and  28  per 
cent,  of  the  girls  prefer  the  Old  Testament,  and  these 
percentages  steadily  rise  for  some  years.  This  indi- 
cates that  even  in  the  youngest  children,  to  whom  the 
Infant  Jesus  is  especially  attractive,  there  are  other 
forces  at  work  in  determining  their  interest.  These 
forces  assert  themselves  more  and  more,  and  during 
the  years  from  9  or  10,  on  to  13  or  14,  they  shift  the 
center  of  interest  to  the  Old  Testament.  How 
strong  these  forces  must  be,  is  suggested  by  another 
important  fact,  that  should  be  taken  into  account 
in  this  connection.  In  general,  religious  teachers 
lay  much  more  stress  upon  the  facts  and  teachings 
of  the  New  Testament  than  upon  those  of  the  Old. 
As  shown  by  this  study,  the  interest  of  adults  is  over- 
whelmingly in  favor  of  the  New  Testament.  Esti- 
mating the  child  from  the  adult  standpoint,  these 
adults  impose  their  interests  upon  the  children  they 
instruct.  Very  naturally,  there  is  thus  given  to  the 
children  an  interest  in  facts,  doctrines,  etc.,  that  is 
not  spontaneous,  but  derived  from  the  teachers. 
This  derived  interest  undoubtedly  enters  into  the 
choice  of  children.  And  yet,  as  we  have  seen,  the 
forces  at  work  in  these  children's  natures  are  suffi- 


Children's  Interest  in  the  Bible  63 

ciently  strong  to  offset  the  bias  induced  by  adult 
example  and  to  turn  the  balance  in  favor  of  the  Old 
Testament.  Everything  considered,  it  is  probable 
that  the  typical  boy  or  girl  from  g  years  to  14,  is  more 
attracted  to  the  Old  Testament  than  to  the  New. 

There  is  some  light  shed  upon  this  matter  by  the 
scientific  studies  already  referred  to.  If  it  be  true 
that  the  various  levels  of  instinct  and  intelligence  in 
racial  life  have  their  outcroppings  in  the  develop- 
ment of  the  individual  child,  and  if  we  may  regard 
the  development  of  the  Hebrew  people  as  typical  of 
the  life  of  the  race  as  a  whole,  ought  we  not  to  expect 
that  the  main  centers  of  children's  interest  in  the 
Bible  will  shift  from  the  Old  to  the  New  Testament 
as  manhood  and  womanhood  approach  ?  To  illus- 
trate: The  fundamental  human  instincts  may  be 
classified  as  egoistic,  or  selfish,  and  altruistic,  or  un- 
selfish. Psychologists  are  agreed  that  racial  devel- 
opment, as  well  as  individual  development,  is  away 
from  the  predominantly  selfish  instincts  toward  the 
predominantly  unselfish  instincts.  Now  the  Old 
Testament  Scriptures  appeal  more  especially  to  the 
former  class  of  instincts;  while  the  New  Testament 
Scriptures  appeal  rather  to  the  latter.  Fear,  anger, 
jealousy,  hatred,  revenge,  etc.,  are  conspicuous 
attributes  of  God  and  men,  in  the  Old  Testament; 
while  sympathy,  compassion,  trustfulness,  and  love 
are  the  most  prominent  attributes  of  God  and  men, 
in  the  New.  In  short,  the  Bible  moves  from  an 
egoistic  point  of  view  regarding  God  and  mankind, 


64  The  Child  and  His  Religion 

to  an  increasingly  altruistic  point  of  view.  The 
parallelism  between  the  development  of  the  child  and 
the  development  of  the  Bible  is  therefore  clearly  sug- 
gested, so  far  as  concerns  these  great  central  instincts 
of  the  human  soul. 

Again,  psychologists  are  agreed  that  the  human 
race  has  developed  from  a  predominantly  sensory- 
motor  type  toward  a  predominantly  associative  and 
rational  type.  Primitive  man  lives  in  his  senses  and 
activities.  The  world  is  essentially  a  sensuous  world 
to  him.  He  delights  in  everything  that  appeals 
strongly  to  sight,  hearing,  touch,  taste,  and  smell. 
This  explains  his  fondness  for  bright  colors,  massive 
sounds,  pungent  tastes,  strong  odors,  and  the  like. 
His  motor  nature  is  also  dominant  in  his  enjoyments, 
as  is  shown  especially  in  his  fondness  for  dancing, 
wrestling,  and  other  feats  of  strength  and  prowess. 
The  individual  child  likewise  develops  from  the 
sensory-motor  to  the  rational  in  its  nature  and  inter- 
ests. In  vividness  of  sense-impressions  and  in  con- 
stancy and  variety  of  spontaneous  movements, 
children  surpass  adults.  Gilbert'  found  by  testing 
school  children  that  the  great  period  of  sense-develop- 
ment is  from  early  childhood  up  to  lo  or  12.  The 
play  activities  of  children  during  the  same  period 
are  very  marked,  as  many  investigations  have  shown. 
Out  of  this  sensuous  and  intensely  active  hfe  of  chil- 
dren spring  those  interests  that  reveal  themselves  in 

'  Studies  from  the  Yale  Psychological  Laboratory,  Vol.  I,  p.  80, 
and  Vol.  II,  p.  90. 


Children's  Interest  in  the  Bible  65 

a  fondness  for  spectacular  scenes,  feats  of  skill  and 
daring,  and  the  general  flesh-and-blood  heroism  so 
attractive  to  boys  and  girls.  Studies  made  of  chil- 
dren's reading  interests  bring  to  light  the  fact  that  in 
the  period  just  preceding  adolescence  there  is  a 
marked  fondness  for  the  heroic  in  literature.  Thus, 
Principal  Atkinson,'  of  the  Springfield  (Mass.) 
High  School,  found  that  the  books  read  the  preceding 
summer  by  an  entering  freshman  class  were  largely 
biographical,  including  a  range  of  heroes  from 
Charlemange  and  Cromwell  to  Daniel  Boone  and 
Buffalo  Bill.  In  general,  an  ideal  or  heroic  char- 
acter placed  in  a  historic  situation  seemed  to  appeal 
to  the  largest  number. 

Now  the  Bible  illustrates  a  similar  development 
from  the  sensory-motor  type  of  life  toward  the  asso- 
ciative and  rational  type  of  life.  The  Old  Testa- 
ment abounds  with  spectacular  scenes,  such  as  the 
fight  between  David  and  Goliath,  and  Daniel  in  the 
lion's  den;  thrilling  stories,  such  as  those  associated 
with  the  lives  of  Moses  and  Joseph;  and  heroic  char- 
acters, such  as  Abraham  and  David.  There  is 
throughout  a  combination  of  scenic  splendor,  striking 
episodes,  and  unique  personalities  that  impresses  the 
senses  most  vividly  and  appeals  to  the  love  of  dra- 
matic action.  It  is  true,  of  course,  that  the  motive 
of  the  Old  Testament  is  religious.  There  was  no 
design  on  the  part  of  its  writers  to  present  a  pageant 
of  striking  characters  and  incidents.     But  the  method 

I  Proceedings  of  the  National  Education  Association,  1898. 


66  The  Child  and  His  Religion 

is,  nevertheless,  that  of  the  primitive  mind,  which 
seizes  upon  the  sensuous  and  the  dramatic,  rather 
than  the  rational  and  reflective,  elements  of  life  and 
religion.  Here  again,  therefore  we  find  a  parallelism 
between  the  development  of  the  child  and  the  devel- 
opment of  the  Bible. 

This  parallelism  between  the  unfolding  of  racial 
consciousness  as  revealed  in  the  Bible  and  the  unfold- 
ing of  the  child's  consciousness,  has  further  illustra- 
tion when  we  direct  our  attention  to  the  older  children 
included  in  this  study.  Here  we  find  that  as  life 
ripens  into  adolescence,  the  centers  of  interest  shift 
to  the  New  Testament.  From  15  years  on,  in  the 
case  of  the  boys,  and  from  14  years  on,  in  the  case  of 
the  girls,  the  preference  of  the  latter  becomes  more 
and  more  marked.  Now,  all  the  studies  of  adoles- 
cence tend  to  show  that  this  period  marks  a  psychical, 
as  well  as  a  physical  rebirth.  The  child  is  born  out 
of  an  individualistic  type  of  feeling  into  a  social  type 
of  feeling;  out  of  a  sensory-motor  type  of  intelligence 
into  a  reflective  type  of  intelligence;  out  of  an  egocen- 
tric and  sensuous  life,  in  short,  into  a  life  altrocenlric 
and  rational.  Hancock'  has  found  by  experi- 
mental tests  that  children's  ability  to  reason  increases 
rapidly  with  the  approach  of  adolescence.  Lan- 
caster^ shows  that  during  this  period  altruistic  feeling 
is  extremely  active  in  both  sexes,  revealing  itself  in 
philanthropic   work   of   all    kinds.     Starbucks    and 

'  Educational  Review,  October,  1896. 

2  Pedagogical  Seminary,  Vol.  V,  pp.  61-128. 

3  American  Journal  of  Psychology,  January  and  October,  1897. 


Children's  Interest  in  the  Bible  67 

Gulick, '  by  statistical  studies  of  conversion,  find  that 
the  great  majority  of  accessions  to  the  church  take 
place  between  12  and  20  years  of  age.  We  may 
conclude,  therefore,  that  just  as  Jesus  and  the  Chris- 
tian type  of  consciousness  represented  a  new  birth 
for  the  race,  so  does  the  flowering-out  of  the  altruistic 
and  reflectively  religious  consciousness  of  adolescence 
represent  a  new  birth  for  the  individual.  In  other 
words,  just  as  the  personality  of  Jesus  and  his  regimen 
of  life  sum  up  the  ideals  toward  which  the  race  is 
struggling,  so  do  they  sum  up  the  ideals  toward  which 
the  individual  soul  is  struggling. 

As  regards  the  children  who  express  no  prefer- 
ence between  the  Old  and  the  New  Testament,  it 
will  be  observed  that  they  fall  within  those  ages 
when  the  interests  of  the  majority  of  the  children  are 
shifting  from  the  Old  to  the  New  Testament.  From 
what  has  already  been  said,  it  is  evident  that  the 
transformation  from  the  egoistic,  sensuous  life  of 
childhood,  to  the  altruistic  reflective  life  of  adoles- 
cence, must  occasion  a  severe  conflict  of  interests. 
This  general  conflict  of  interests  is  doubtless  reflected 
in  the  inability,  or  disinclination,  of  some  to  choose 
between  the  Old  and  the  New  Testament.  Teachers 
and  parents  often  remark  upon  the  indifference  of 
some  children  during  these  beginning  years  of  adoles- 
cence. As  is  well  known  in  Sunday-school  work,  this 
is  a  period  when  children  are  kept  in  their  classes 
with  difficulty.     The  study  of  children  reveals  the 

I  Association  Outlook,  Springfield,  Mass.,  Vol.  VIII,  pp.  33-48. 


68  The  Child  and  His  Religion 

fact  that  early  adolescence  is  the  birthtime  of  doubts 
and  vacillations  in  conduct.  Now  probably  these 
phenomena  are  due  in  part  to  the  physical  and 
psychical  strain  of  the  period,  more  intense  in  some 
children  than  in  others;  but  I  venture  to  suggest 
that  all  such  indifference,  doubt,  or  whatever  it  may 
be,  is  largely  due  to  the  conflict  of  interests  incident 
to  the  transition  from  one  type  of  life  to  another. 

To  conclude  this  discussion  regarding  the  choice 
of  children  between  the  Old  and  the  New  Testament: 
Have  we  not  in  the  development  of  children's  interest 
in  the  main  divisions  of  the  Bible  a  verification  of  an 
age-long  belief  ?  The  Christian  world  has  long  been 
familiar  with  the  thought  that  the  Old  Testament  is 
preparatory  to  the  New.  The  historical  events 
recorded  in  the  former  have  their  culmination  in  the 
latter.  The  prophesies  springing  from  the  life  of 
ancient  Israel  anticipate  the  life  and  utterances  of 
Him  who  came  out  of  Nazareth.  The  laws  given 
at  Sinai  have  their  fulfilment  in  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount.  In  short,  in  the  words  of  Paul:  "The  law 
was  our  schoolmaster  to  bring  us  unto  Christ."' 
This  popular  view  of  the  relation  between  the  Old 
and  the  New  Testament  is  being  confirmed  by  the 
conclusions  of  modern  biblical  scholarship.  The 
Hebrew  Scriptures  illustrate  the  general  laws  of 
development  in  the  life  of  a  people.  Each  step  in 
the  unfolding  of  Hebrew  institutions,  customs,  laws, 
and  moral  and  religious  ideals,  is  related  to  all  that 

'  Gal.  3:24. 


Children's  Interest  in  the  Bible  69 

precedes  and  all  that  follows.  The  new  dispensa- 
tion could  not  come  till  the  old  had  prepared  at 
least  a  few  choice  souls  for  its  reception.  The 
words  of  Paul,  "  When  the  fullness  of  time  was  come, 
God  sent  forth  his  Son,"'  have  thus  their  modern 
reading  in  the  theory  of  human  development. 

Choice  among  the  hooks  of  the  Bible. — The  data 
summarized  under  this  head  contribute  to  the  same 
general  results  as  those  reached  in  the  preceding 
section.  In  addition,  however,  they  bring  to  light 
the  interests  of  children  from  a  more  distinctively 
educational  point  of  view.  The  material  of  the 
Bible,  as  commonly  given  to  children,  may  be  classi- 
fied under  the  following  heads:  (i)  historical  (includ- 
ing the  geographical),  (2)  prophetic,  (3)  gospel,  and 
(4)  doctrinal.  To  these  may  be  added  the  literary, 
including  the  poetic  and  wisdom  books.  Following 
the  lines  of  this  classification,  I  have  grouped  the 
various  books  of  the  Bible  for  which  the  children 
indicated  a  preference,  under  six  heads:  historical, 
prophetic,  poetic,  wisdom,  gospel,  and  doctrinal. 

At  8  years  of  age,  the  choice  of  the  boys  is  equally 
divided  between  the  historical  and  the  gospel  books. 
During  the  next  three  years,  the  interest  in  the 
historical  books  increases,  reaching  in  the  nth 
year  60  per  cent.  Thereafter,  the  historical  interest 
declines,  falling  to  22  per  cent,  in  the  14th  year  and 
to  8  per  cent,  in  the  20th  year.  The  interest  in  the 
gospel  books  falls  off  rapidly  from  the  8th  to  the  13th 

1  Gal.  4:4. 


yo  The  Child  and  His  Religion 

year,  reaching  at  that  time  22  per  cent.  Then  it  rises 
steadily  and  rapidly  to  the  20th  year,  when  it  reaches 
78  per  cent.  Interest  in  the  poetic  books  begins  at 
9  years,  rises  steadily  to  the  14th  year,  when  it 
reaches  t,t,  per  cent.,  and  then  falls  off  more  or  less 
irregularly  to  the  20th  year,  when  it  stands  at  14 
per  cent.  From  12  to  15,  there  is  some  interest 
shown  in  the  prophetic  books,  the  maximum  being 
18  per  cent,  in  the  14th  year.  There  is  also  a  slight 
interest  shown  in  the  wisdom  books  from  16  to  18, 
the  maximum  being  reached  at  17,  when  the  per- 
centage is  seven.  Not  a  single  boy  between  the 
ages  of  8  and  20  expressed  a  preference  for  a  book 
that  could  be  classed  as  doctrinal. 

The  girls  also  distribute  their  preferences  equally 
between  the  historical  and  gospel  books  to  start  with. 
The  historical  interest  then  declines  to  37  per  cent, 
at  10  years,  rises  steadily  to  46  per  cent,  in  the  13th 
year,  and  thereafter  falls  to  zero  in  the  19th  year. 
The  interest  in  the  gospel  books  falls  to  30  per  cent, 
in  the  12th  year,  and  thereafter  rises  steadily  and 
rapidly  to  90  per  cent,  in  the  20th  year.  The  poetic 
interest  appears  first  in  the  9th  year,  rises  to  20  per 
cent,  in  the  nth  and  12th  years,  and  then  slowly 
declines  to  zero  in  the  17th  year.  Interest  in  the 
prophetic  books  has  a  somewhat  uneven  run  from 
12  to  20,  reaching  its  maximum  at  12  and  again  at 
17.  Interest  in  the  wisdom  books  begins  at  14, 
being  at  its  maximum  from  that  age  to  15,  and  then 
declining  to  zero  at  20.     A  slight  interest  is  shown 


Children's  Interest  in  the  Bible  71 

in  the  doctrinal  books  from  19  to  20,  the  maximum 
being  10  per  cent.,  at  the  latter  age. 

In  general,  therefore,  we  have  a  somewhat  wide 
distribution  of  interests  up  to  the  beginning  of  adoles- 
cence, with  some  advantage  in  favor  of  the  historical 
books,  especially  on  the  part  of  the  boys.  Literary, 
prophetic,  and  wisdom  books  come  more  into  favor 
in  the  years  just  preceding  adolescence  and  maintain 
a  somewhat  prominent  place  throughout  the  early 
years  of  that  period;  while  the  gospel  interest  stands 
out  conspicuously  as  the  pre-eminent  adolescent 
interest.  These  results  are  brought  out  more  graph- 
ically in  Charts  III  and  IV. 

In  interpreting  the  foregoing  results,  we  have  first 
to  note  that,  in  general,  the  preferences  coincide  with 
those  considered  in  the  preceding  section.  Thus, 
the  preference  for  the  historical  books,  which  are 
mainly  in  the  Old  Testament,  run  more  or  less 
parallel  with  the  preference  for  the  first  division  of 
the  Bible.  The  preference  for  the  gospel  books, 
which  are  in  the  New  Testament,  run  more  or  less 
parallel  with  the  second  division  of  the  Bible.  This 
is  not  so  much  the  case  with  the  younger  children. 
Here  the  choice  of  gospel  books  is  not  so  general  as 
is  the  choice  of  the  New  Testament  as  a  whole,  while 
the  choice  of  historical  books  is  more  general  than  is 
that  of  the  Old  Testament  as  a  whole.  This  dis- 
parity of  choice  is  due,  in  part  at  least,  to  some  chil- 
dren's choosing  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  which  was 
classed   among   the   historical   books.     In   general, 


72 


The  Child  and  His  Religion 


therefore,  the  choice  among  the  books  of  the  Bible 
at  different  ages  has  the  same  explanation  that  has 
already  been  given  to  account  for  the  choice  between 
the  Old  and  the  New  Testament.    The  preference 

CHART  ni 
Boys'  Choice  among  the  Various  Books  of  the  Bible 


100 
90 
80 
70 
60 
50 
40 
30 
20 
10 


AGE    8  9        JO         II        12         13        14        15        16        17        18        19        20 

GOSPEI HIST0RICA1 POETIC. 

o__c-o- PROPHETIC.   I  WISDOM. 

of  the  younger  children  for  the  gospel  books  is  due 
to  the  fact  that  these  books  contain  the  scenes  and 
incidents  associated  with  the  infancy  of  Jesus.  The 
preference  of  the  older  children  for  the  historical 
books  is  due  to  the  fact  that  these  books  contain  the 
elements  most  attractive  to  the  egoistic  and  sensuous 


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Children's  Interest  in  the  Bible 


73 


natures  of  such  children,  while  the  choice  of  gospel 
books  by  adolescents  is  explained  by  reference  to  the 
general  ripening  of  the  altruistic  and  reflective  life 
at  that  period. 

CHART  IV 
Gnas'  Choice  among  the  Various  Books  of  the  Bible 


locr 

90 

/ 

"^ 

70 
60 
50 
40 

30 
20 

/ 

/ 

y^ 

/ 

J 

y^ 

X. 

*N 

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AGE  8         9  10        11        12         13        14        15        16         17        10         19       20 

GOSPEL.        HISTORICAL, POETIC. 

jPROPHETlC.  H+HWM+w  WISDOM.        »,»«Ha*ee<«,0OCTR)NAL. 


However,  we  may  look  at  children's  choice  among 
the  books  of  the  Bible  from  a  somewhat  different 
point  of  view  and  in  greater  detail.  First,  as  to  the 
choice  of  historical  books.  It  has  been  found  that 
the  interest  of  public-school  children  in  history  and 
geography  is  marked  during  the  period  from  9  or  10, 


74  The  Child  and  His  Religion 

on  to  13  or  14.  Mrs.  Barnes^  found  that  the  historic 
sense  has  a  rapid  development  during  these  years. 
Her  curves  are  very  similar  to  those  shown  in  the 
above  diagrams.  She  concludes  that  from  7  years 
on,  history  becomes  an  increasingly  attractive  sub- 
ject for  children,  though  the  larger  historical  interest 
does  not  develop,  perhaps,  before  11  or  12.  Miss 
Ward,^  who  studied  the  geographical  interests  of 
several  thousand  children,  finds  that  there  is  a 
marked  interest  in  places,  especially  in  places  that 
have  human  associations.  I  have  studied  the  general 
school  interests  of  over  1,000  children  in  the  public 
schools  of  Springfield,  Mass.,  and  find  that  both  the 
historical  and  geographical  interests  begin  to  be 
prominent  at  10  years.  These  facts  make  it  prob- 
able that  children  from  9  to  10  years,  on  to  13  or 
14,  will  be  naturally  interested  in  the  historical  and 
geographical  elements  of  the  Bible.  There  is  also 
another  fact  to  be  taken  into  account  in  this  connec- 
tion. There  is  evidence  for  believing  that  children 
during  this  period  have  especial  aptitude  for  mem- 
orizing. All  those  studies  that  involve  a  constant 
exercise  of  memory,  such  as  language,  arithmetic, 
geography,  and  history,  are  more  easily  taught  to 
children  at  this  time.  Street^  concludes  from  his 
study  of  language-training  that  children  acquire 
languages  most  readily  from  8  to  12  years.     Bolton'' 

'  Studies  in  Education,  pp.  43-52,  83-93. 
"  Education,  Vol.  XVIII. 

3  Pedagogical  Seminary,  Vol.  IV,  pp.  269-93. 

4  A^nerican  Journal  oj Psychology,  Vol.  IV. 


Children's  Interest  in  the  Bible  75 

found  that  the  memory  of  children  for  numbers 
practically  reaches  its  maximum  in  the  grades 
below  the  high  school.  Shaw'  found  that  the  mem- 
ory of  children  for  the  essential  elements  of  a  story 
culminated  just  before  the  high-school  period  is 
reached.  Scripture**  found  that  the  time-memory  in 
children  reaches  its  greatest  accuracy  at  about  13  or 
14  years.  These  investigations  indicate  that  the 
period  of  life  in  question  is  peculiarly  adapted  for 
fact-studies,  which  make  great  demands  upon  the 
memory.  And  this  again  renders  it  probable  that 
children's  preference  for  the  historical  books  of  the 
Bible  is  based,  in  part,  upon  certain  special  intellec- 
tual aptitudes. 

Next,  as  to  the  choice  of  prophetic  and  literary 
books.  "Prophecy"  consists  of  two  things  as  ap- 
plied to  the  Bible:  (i)  the  revelation  of  coming 
events;  and  (2)  the  speaking  forth  of  the  deeper 
truths  of  hfe.  Perhaps,  in  the  last  analysis,  these 
two  things  are  one,  but  we  ordinarily  consider  them 
distinct.  Now,  adolescence  is  the  "Golden  Age"  of 
prophecy.  It  is  then  that  the  individual  conscious- 
ness is  reborn  into  the  consciousness  of  the  race. 
The  deeper  truths  of  existence  are  yearned  for  and 
glimpsed.  There  is  a  moral  and  religious  ferment, 
and  the  loftiest  and  the  most  sordid  ideals  struggle 
for  mastery.  Moreover,  it  is  then  that  the  human 
soul  looks  most  anxiously  into  the  future.     Perhaps 

I  Pedagogical  Seminary,  Vol.  IV,  pp.  61-78. 
a  Thinking,  Feeling,  Doing,  p.  251. 


76  The  Child  and  His  Religion 

it  looks  farthest  into  the  future.  Certainly  it  tries 
then,  as  at  no  other  time,  to  learn  its  horoscope. 
Witness  the  idealizing,  the  day-dreaming,  the  fortune- 
telling  devices  of  young  people.  Lancaster'  in  his 
study  of  the  psychology  and  pedagogy  of  adolescence, 
has  collected  data  illustrating  both  these  aspects  of 
the  prophetic  spirit.  The  longing  for  the  more 
vital  truths  of  life,  and  the  far-looking  into  the  future, 
recur  again  and  again  in  the  returns  received  from 
the  youth  of  both  sexes.  Adolescence  is  also  the 
period  when  literary  feeling  and  aspirations  ripen. 
These  are  offshoots  of  the  aesthetic  nature,  and 
studies  of  adolescent  life  bring  to  light  the  fact  that 
all  the  forms  of  aesthetic  feeling  and  activity  begin 
to  crop  out  early  in  this  period.  In  the  study  of 
children's  school  interests  already  referred  to,  I  have 
found  that  the  interest  in  painting,  drawing,  and 
music  increases  rapidly  from  12  years  on,  Lancaster 
found  that  of  100  actors,  50  poets,  100  musicians,  50 
artists,  and  100  writers,  the  majority  had  achieved 
success  in  their  art  before  the  age  of  20,  showing  that 
the  life  of  aesthetic  feeling  and  idealism  is  well 
developed  in  early  adolescence.  The  preference  of 
children  for  the  prophetic  and  literary  books  of  the 
Bible,  in  the  early  adolescent  years,  is,  therefore, 
doubtless  an  expression  of  more  general  moral  and 
aesthetic  interests. 

Finally,  as  to  the  choice  of  gospel  books:  This  is 
pre-eminently  the  choice  of  the  adolescent.     From 

'  Pedagogical  Seminary,  Vol.  V,  pp.  61-128. 


Children'' s  Interest  in  the  Bible  77 

what  has  already  been  said,  it  is  evident  that  adoles- 
cence needs,  and  seeks,  above  everything  else,  some 
kind  of  a  philosophy  and  regimen  of  life.  Life  has 
become  a  thing  fraught  with  a  new  but  vague  mean- 
ing; the  struggle  is  to  make  its  meaning  clear.  Life 
has  become  a  larger,  richer  thing;  the  struggle  is  to 
learn  the  method  by  which  its  largeness  and  richness 
may  be  personally  realized.  The  quickening  of 
moral  feeling  leads  to  self-scrutiny  and  an  apprehen- 
sion of  more  or  less  friction  between  the  self  and  the 
best  environments.  The  quickening  of  the  religious 
feelings  begets  a  desire  to  get  adjusted  to  the  largest 
and  best  ideals.  The  quickening  of  the  sense  of  life, 
as  lived  through  others  and  for  others,  awakens  the 
impulse  to  become  a  part  of  the  great  cosmic  struggle 
for  more  complete  existence.  In  the  gospels  is  found 
the  Christian  philosophy  of  life;  and  in  the  gospels  is 
found  the  Christian  regimen  of  life,  in  its  broad  out- 
lines. For  the  gospels  reveal  the  personality  of  One 
who  "came  that  they  might  have  life  and  that  they 
might  have  it  more  abundantly,"  and  Christian 
philosophy  sums  itself  up  in  personal  character. 
And  the  gospels  reveal  broadly  the  Christian  regimen 
of  life,  for  this  is  simply  to  follow  where  He  leads. 
It  is  not  surprising,  therefore,  that,  when  the  mean- 
ing and  method  of  life  are  sought  with  such  earnest 
zest  as  during  the  adolescent  years,  the  Christian 
explanation  of  what  life  is,  and  how  it  may  be  lived, 
should  be  of  interest. 

Choice  of  Bible  scenes,  stories,  and  characters. — The 


73 


The  Child  and  His  Religion 


data  collected  under  this  head  bear  upon  three  points : 
(i)  the  scenes,  stories,  and  characters  that  are  most 
liked;  (2)  the  development  of  interest  in  the  scenic, 
narrative,  and  personal  elements;  and  (3)  the  com- 
parative interest  in  the  three  classes  of  elements  at 
different  ages.  Preferences  were  shown  for  57  differ- 
ent Bible  scenes,  26  from  the  Old  Testament  and  31 
from  the  New.  Of  these,  the  15  most  popular  scenes 
are  the  followinsr: 


Total 


1.  Daniel  in  the  Lions'  Den 

2.  The  Crucifixion 

3.  The  Birth  of  Jesus 

4.  Jesus  Blessing  Little  Children. 

5.  The  Lord's  Supper 

6.  Feeding  the  Five  Thousand. . . 

7.  Jesus  Walking  on  the  Sea 

8.  The  Resurrection 

The  Finding  of  Moses 

The  Raising  of  Lazarus 

The  Transfiguration 

Jesus  before  the  Wise  Men. . . . 

Jesus'  Triumphal  Entry 

The  Woman  at  the  Well 

The  Stilling  of  the  Tempest. . . 


9- 
10. 
II. 
12. 


Boys 

Girls 

53 

52 

45 
27 

35 
38 

13 

42 

30 

23 

25 

24 

10 
18 

27 
18 

13 

8 

21 

24 

10 

21 

5 

20 

12 

13 

15 

10 

12 

12 

105 
78 
65 

55 
53 
49 
37 
36 
34 
32 
31 
25 
25 
25 
24 


It  will  be  observed  that  all  but  2  of  these  15  scenes 
are  from  the  New  Testament.  Probably  this  is  to  be 
accounted  for,  in  part,  by  the  influence  of  pictures. 
Many  of  the  scenes  mentioned  are  the  commonest 
subjects  of  the  masterpieces  of  Christian  art,  repro- 
ductions of  which  appear  in  pictorial  Bibles,  Sunday- 
school  literature,  and  the  like.  It  is  also  due,  un- 
doubtedly, to  the  intrinsic  attractiveness  of  the  per- 
sonality and  works  of  Jesus.    All  of  the  scenes  from 


Children's  Interest  in  the  Bible  79 

the  New  Testament  have  him  as  their  central  figure, 
three  presenting  him  as  a  child  or  in  connection  with 
children.  The  most  popular  scene  of  all,  however, 
is  Daniel  in  the  Lions'  Den.  This  is  unquestionably 
one  of  the  most  graphic  scenes  in  the  Bible  when 
given  pictorial  representation,  as  it  often  is,  in  reli- 
gious literature.  This  fact  is  sufficient  to  account  for 
its  popularity.  The  popularity  of  the  Crucifixion  is 
doubtless  due,  in  part,  to  Christian  art  and  to  the 
emphasis  placed  in  religious  teaching  upon  the  death 
of  Jesus.  It  is  also,  probably,  due  to  a  lurking  fond- 
ness in  some  children  for  cruel  and  tragic  scenes. 
One  boy,  in  describing  his  preferences,  said,  "  I  like 
anything  that  has  murder  and  such  things  in  it."  It 
is  to  be  hoped  that  not  many  children  share  this  feel- 
ing. But  there  is  here  suggested  a  possibility  that 
should  inspire  caution  in  those  who  are  disposed  to 
dwell  upon  such  scenes  in  religious  teaching. 

The  choice  of  Bible  stories  has  a  total  range  of  t,^, 
23  of  these  being  drawn  from  the  Old  Testament  and 
15  from  the  New.  The  most  popular  of  these  are 
given  in  the  table  on  the  following  page. 

It  appears  from  this  that  Old  Testament  stories  are 
more  popular  than  are  New  Testament  stories,  the 
5  standing  highest  in  the  list  being  drawn  from  the 
Old  Testament.  These  5  stories  have  all  the  essen- 
tial elements  that  make  such  productions  attractive 
to  the  young — heroic  characters,  heroic  situations, 
heroic  actions.  The  same  is  true,  in  a  somewhat 
less  degree,  of  the  remaining  5  stories  drawn  from  the 


8o 


The  Child  and  His  Religion 


Old  Testament.  From  all  that  has  been  said  about 
the  egoistic  sensuous  life  of  children  in  the  earlier 
years,  we  are  prepared  to  understand  why  the  story- 
interest  should  center  in  that  division  of  the  Bible. 


1.  The  Selling  of  Joseph 

2.  David  and  Goliath 

3.  Daniel  and  the  Assyrian  Kings.  . 

4.  Moses  and  Pharaoh's  Daughter. 

5.  The  Story  of  Ruth 

6.  Story  of  Jesus'  Birth 

7.  The  Prodigal  Son 

8.  Story  of  Noah's  Ark 

9.  The  Calling  of  Samuel 

10.  Samson  and  the  Philistines 

11.  The  Flight  into  Egypt 

12.  Jonah  and  the  Whale 

13.  Story  of  Esther 

14.  Changing  Water  into  Wine 

15.  The  Good  Samaritan 


Boys 

Girls 

48 

99 

5° 

5° 

43 

41 

25 

44 

10 

41 

20 

29 

15 

23 

20 

18 

16 

16 

20 

7 

3 

15 

10 

7 

7 

10 

5 

12 

5 

II 

Total 


147 
100 

84 
69 
51 
49 
38 
38 
32 
27 
18 

17 
17 
17 
16 


The  most  popular  story  in  the  New  Testament  is  that 
of  Jesus'  birth,  many  of  the  youngest  children  choos- 
ing this,  as  we  might  expect  from  what  has  preceded. 
But  one  story  in  this  group  of  15  is  based  upon  a 
miracle,  and  this  probably  owed  its  interest  for  chil- 
dren to  the  human  elements  involved.  In  general, 
few  children  expressed  a  liking  for  miracles. 

A  total  of  45  Bible  characters  were  chosen — 25 
Old  Testament  characters  and  20  New  Testament 
characters.  The  15  most  popular  are  given  in  the 
table  on  the  following  page. 

From  the  foregoing,  it  appears  the  three  characters 
most  often  chosen,  arc  New  Testament  characters. 
The  boys  distribute  their  preferences  equally  among 


Children's  Interest  in  the  Bible 


these.  A  much  larger  percentage  of  the  girls,  how- 
ever, choose  John  the  Disciple,  while  more  of  the 
girls  choose  Peter  than  Jesus.  The  qualities  found 
in  John  are  sufficient  to  account  for  his  popularity. 
He  is  a  gentle,  loving,  yet  manly,  character.     He  is 

Total 


John  the  Disciple 

Peter 

Jesus 

David 

Moses 

Paul 

Joseph 

Daniel 

Samuel 

Ruth 

Elijah 

Abraham 

Solomon 

John  the  Baptist 

Mary,  the  Mother  of  Jesus. 


Boys 

Girls 

48 

104 

48 

77 

48 

66 

49 

65 

44 

59 

31 

63 

32 

43 

19 

36 

13 

17 

7 

17 

16 

8 

10 

II 

II 

9 

8 

7 

4 

II 

152 

125 

114 
114 
103 

94 
75 
55 
30 
24 
24 
21 
20 
15 
15 


doubtless  also  loved  for  the  sake  of  his  Master, 
whom  he  so  fittingly  portrayed  in  the  Fourth  Gospel. 
The  prominence  of  Peter  is  not  so  easily  understood. 
Aside  from  his  rugged,  virile  manhood,  we  have 
probably  to  take  into  account  his  unique  place  in 
Jesus'  regard  and  the  distinction  he  has  enjoyed  in 
church  history.  It  may  seem  strange  that  Jesus 
should  rank  lowest  in  the  total  preferences  shown  for 
these  three  New  Testament  characters.  I  am  in- 
clined to  believe  that  this  is  not  accidental,  however. 
It  is  doubtful  if  the  younger  children  at  least  were 
influenced  by  the  theological  estimate  of  Jesus.  They 
probably  see  only  the  human  Jesus,  and  if  they  think 


82  The  Child  and  His  Religion 

of  Jesus  as  a  man,  when  they  are  asked  to  express  a 
choice  between  him  and  another  man,  they  do  so  with 
the  same  candor  that  they  show  in  other  matters.  I 
doubt  not  that  Jesus  is  naturally  the  most  attractive 
character  in  the  Bible  for  children  of  all  ages.  This 
study  shows  that,  as  a  child,  he  is  more  often  chosen 
by  the  younger  children  than  is  any  other  character. 
It  seems  to  me  probable  that  this  preference  would 
continue  among  older  children  if  the  latter  were 
allowed  spontaneously  to  grow  into  an  appreciation 
of  the  adult  Jesus.  But  religious  teachers  are  usually 
so  anxious  to  present  Jesus  to  children  as  a  divine 
person,  and  children's  minds  are  so  unable  to  grasp 
the  mystical  implications  of  this  dogma,  that  the 
human  Jesus  is  taken  away  from  them  and  the  divine 
Jesus  is  made  an  intellectual  abstraction.  The 
result  is,  that  the  child  can  love  neither  the  one  nor 
the  other.  This  religious  forcing  will  inevitably 
shift  the  interest  of  a  child  to  a  character  whose  simple 
humanity  it  can  understand  and  love.  I  believe 
this  will  account  for  the  preference  which  so  large  a 
percentage  of  the  girls  show  for  John. 

Among  the  Old  Testament  characters  chosen,  the 
most  prominent  are  David,  Moses,  Joseph,  and 
Daniel.  This  is  what  we  would  expect  from  what  we 
have  already  learned  of  children's  preference  for  the 
heroic  and  dramatic  elements  of  the  Old  Testament. 

As  regards  the  development  of  interest  in  the 
scenic,  narrative,  and  personal  elements  of  the  Bible, 
we  find:    (i)  That,  in  general,  the  interest  in  scenes 


Children's  Interest  in  the  Bible  8^ 

and  stories  is  somewhat  more  marked  in  the  younger 
children  than  in  the  older;  and  (2)  that  the  interest 
in  characters  increases  with  advancing  age.  Refer- 
ence to  Charts  V  and  VI  makes  this  sufficiently 
clear.  From  these  charts  it  will  also  be  observed 
that  the  comparative  interest  in  the  three  classes  of 
elements  at  different  ages  is  overwhelmingly  in  favor 
of  the  characters.  The  larger  percentage  of  children 
of  all  ages  are  attracted  more  strongly  to  the  personal 
elements  of  the  Bible  than  to  any  other.  This  is 
shown  not  alone  by  the  preference  expressed  for 
characters,  but  also  by  the  choice  of  scenes  and  nar- 
ratives themselves.  Thus,  of  the  57  scenes  men- 
tioned, all  but  4  have  their  center  of  interest  in  per- 
sons; while  of  the  t^?>  Bible  stories  selected,  all  but 
3  owe  their  interest  to  the  characters  that  take  part  in 
them. 

Sufficient  has  already  been  said  in  this  and  preced- 
ing sections  to  explain  most  of  the  above  results.  The 
overwhelming  interest  of  children  of  all  ages  in  the 
personal  elements  of  the  Bible  deserves  further  dis- 
cussion, however.  The  human  interest  of  children 
has  been  generally  observed  by  those  who  have 
studied  the  psychology  of  childhood.  To  adapt  the 
sentiment  of  the  Latin  poet,  nothing  of  human  con- 
cern is  foreign  to  the  child.  The  first  efforts  of  the 
little  boy  to  realize  his  artistic  ideals  are  usually 
pictures  of  men.  The  principal  play  activities  are 
reproductions  of  the  lives  of  adult  men  and  women. 
The  reading  interests  of  older  children  run  mainly 


84  The  Child  and  His  Religion 

along  the  line  of  biography,  or  fiction  in  which  the 
character  element  is  prominent,  Atkinson,  in  com- 
menting upon  the  reading-interest  of  boys  at  the 
high-school  period,  says:  "The  liking  for  biography 
is  remarkable.  One  boy  read  the  lives  of  Grant, 
Garfield,  Sherman,  and  Blaine.  Another  read  the 
lives  of  Charlemagne,  Cromwell,  David  Crockett, 
Daniel  Boone,  and  Buffalo  Bill."^  Mrs.  Barnes,^ 
from  her  study  of  the  historic  sense  of  children,  con- 
cludes that  history  should  primarily  be  taught 
through  the  biographies  of  heroic  and  striking  char- 
acters. Miss  Ward,3  who  has  investigated  the  geo- 
graphical interest  of  children,  finds  that  five-sixths 
of  the  preferences  for  towns,  cities,  or  countries 
reveal  a  human  interest.  Miss  Ward  mentions  Anna 
Buckbee  as  having  made  a  similar  study  to  her  own, 
with  similar  results,  and  concludes  by  saying:  " Does 
not  the  strong  human  interest  shown  by  children 
lead  us  to  unite  with  Miss  Buckbee  in  asking  if  this 
does  not  show  that  the  earth  should  be  taught  as  the 
home  of  man?"  The  sentiment  thus  expressed  is 
rapidly  becoming  general  in  educational  circles. 
History,  geography,  literature,  and  the  elementary 
sciences  are  being  taught  more  and  more  from  the 
viewpoint  of  their  human  interest.     In  the  light  of 

"  "A  Year's  Study  of  the  Entering  Pupils  of  the  Springfield 
(Mass.)  High  School,"  Proceedings  of  the  National  Education 
Association,  1898. 

'  Studies  in  Education,  p.  90. 

3  Education,  Vol.  XVIII. 


Children's  Interest  in  the  Bible 


85 


such  facts,  the  significance  of  children's  predominant 
interest  in  the  personal  elements  of  the  Bible  becomes 
clear.  Have  we  not  here  a  suggestion  that  the  Bible, 
too,  may  best  be  given  to  children  through  the 
medium  of  personal  incident  and  biography  ? 


CHART  V 

'  i 

Comparative  Choice  among  Boys  of  Bible  Characters,  Stories, 
AND  Scenes 

70 

y 

N^ 

.. 

/ 

/ 

V 

"^ 

60 
50 

/ 

/ 

/ 

\ 

y 

/ 

V, 

^ 

40 

/ 

/ 

/ 
/' 

\ 

iU 

V 

\ 

/ 

V 

\ 

^,,-^ 

^',f 



\ 



^^ 

20 

\ 

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x 
y 

■^' 

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., 

10 

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^-'' 

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AG£  8 


10        11        12 
—CHARACTERS. 


13        14       15       16        17       18         19       20 
STORIES. SCENES. 


Development  of  interest  in  Jesus. — Finally,  we 
may  examine  the  data  bearing  upon  children's 
interest  in  Bible  characters,  with  a  view  to  discover- 
ing whether  there  is  any  change  from  period  to  period 
in  their  regard  for  Jesus.  For  purposes  of  compari- 
son, it^will   be  helpful  to^note  the  development  of 


86 


The  Child  and  His  Religion 


interest  in  John  the  Disciple,  and  David,  the  most 
popular  characters  in  the  New  and  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, respectively.  First  of  all,  we  should  remem- 
ber that  what  has  been  said  about  little  children's 
fondness  for  the  infant  Jesus  will  not  hold  to  the 

CHART  VI 

Comparative  Choice  among  Girls  of  Bible  Characters,  Stories, 

AND  Scenes 


* 

100 

90 
80 
70 
60 
50 
40 
30 
20 
10 


AGE    8 


J 

^ 

\, 

^^ 

/ 

N 

\ 

y 

^ 

""^ 

■      ' 

^ 

/ 

s 
s 



"s — 

^?< 

>^. 

^ 

/^ 

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N 

"^ 

•»  ^  — 

■^• 







'0        11        12         13       14        15        16 
.CHARACTERS.     ———STORIES.  - 


18        19       20 
SCENES. 


same  extent  in  the  choice  of  Jesus  as  an  adult 
character.  In  the  former  case,  Jesus  was  thought 
of  in  the  environment  of  childhood.  His  attrac- 
tiveness for  children  was  revealed  through  their 
fondness  for  the  scenes  and  incidents  connected 
with     that    period.      In    the    latter    case,    he     is 


Children's  Interest  in  the  Bible  87 

thought  of  in  relation  to  other  adults  and  to  adult 
environments. 

The  boys  express  no  preference  for  Jesus  until  the 
loth  year.  Beginning  at  this  age  with  10  per  cent., 
their  interest  increases  somewhat  rapidly  up  to  14, 
and  then  less  rapidly  throughout  the  remaining  years 
included  in  the  study.  From  17  years  on,  approxi- 
mately, 60  per  cent,  of  the  boys  include  Jesus  in 
their  list  of  preferences.  The  girls'  interest  begins 
with  20  per  cent.,  at  8  years,  and  rises  steadily  up 
to  the  15th  year,  when  it  stands  at  60  per  cent. 
Thereafter,  it  declines  somewhat,  although  remain- 
ing throughout  above  50  per  cent.  Generally  speak- 
ing, therefore,  the  interest  in  Jesus  is  an  adolescent 
interest,  manifesting  itself  strongly  at  the  beginning 
of  that  period  and  continuing  throughout.  The 
interest  in  John  the  Disciple,  on  the  other  hand, 
covers  a  shorter  period.  It  is  mainly  an  interest  of 
early  adolescence.  In  the  case  of  the  girls,  it  rises 
sharply  from  10  years  on,  culminating  at  13,  with 
68  per  cent.  The  boys'  interest  rises  less  abruptly, 
reaching  its  culmination  in  the  i6th  year,  with  50 
per  cent.  Thereafter,  in  both  boys  and  girls,  the 
curve  of  interest  falls  rapidly.  Finally,  the  interest 
in  David  is,  in  general,  a  pre-adolescent  interest.  It 
is  strongly  manifested  from  9  to  12,  reaching  approxi- 
mately its  highest  point  at  the  latter  age,  in  the  case  of 
the  girls,  and  then  remaining  constant  up  to  15, 
when  it  falls  off  rapidly.  The  boys'  interest  cul- 
minates at  14,  when  it  also  declines,  the  percentage 


The  Child  and  His  Religion 


of  both  sexes  falling  to  zero  in  the  19th  year.  These 
results  will  appear  more  clearly  in  the  following 
charts. 


100 
90 
80 
70 
60 
50 
40 
30 
20 
10 
AGE  8 


CHART  VII 

Children's  Interest  in  Jesus 


/ 

'-^^ 

•^ 

---^ 

^ 

— 

^^^ 

'^ 

"^ 

/ 

^ 

X 

/ 

y 

/ 

n      12      13 
..BOYS. 


15        16 
.-GIRLS. 


13       19      30 


We  hav€,  therefore,  the  outstanding  fact  that  chil- 
dren's interest  in  Jesus,  as  an  adult,  is  an  adolescent 
interest.  This  is  what  we  should  expect  from  the 
numerous  tendencies  of  this  period  of  life,  elsewhere 
referred  to.  In  considering  the  general  interest  of 
adolescents  in  the  New  Testament,  we  found  that 
this  runs  parallel  with  the  ripening  of  the  altruistic 
and  rcdective  consciousness.  Thus,  it  is  the  opinion 
of  those  who  have  studied  the  religious  aspects  of 


Children's  Interest  in  the  Bible 


89 


adolescence  that  the  character  and  teaching  of  Jesus 
appeal  strongly  to  the  adolescent  mind.  Lancaster 
says: 

Adolescents  will  sacrifice  and  perform  duty  for  the  Master 
as  at  no  other  time  of  life.     Instruction  should  take  the  form 

CHART  VIII 
CeiLnREN  s  Interest  in  Tohn  the  Disciple 
i 
100 

90 

eo 

70 
60 
50 
40 
30 
20 
10 

AGE     8         9         10        n        12         13        14        15        16         17       18         19         20 
BOYS.  GIPLS. 

of  an  appeal  to  free,  spontaneous  loyaUy  to  the  King,  an    d 
Jesus  should  be  presented  as  the  ideal,  heroic  God-man.    His 
self-sacrifice  and  self-denial,  his  suffering  and  passion  may 
be  taught  with  the  assurance  that  they  will  appeal  most 
strongly  to  the  soul-life  of  the  adolescents.' 

'  "The  Psychology  and  Pedagogy  of  Adolescence,"  Pedagogi- 
cal Seminary,  Vol.  V,  p.  128. 


/ 

». 

/ 

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/ 

/ 

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\ 

1 

--' 

1 

/ 

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/ 

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.^— ^' 

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r 

y 

\ 

\ 

^^ 

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V 

^ 

/ 

\ 

A 

90 


The  Child  and  His  Religion 


This  intrinsic  attractiveness  of  the  personality  of 
Jesus  for  young  people,  appears  in  what  is  called  con- 
version. The  meaning  attached  to  the  latter  by 
evangelical  Christianity  is  essentially  the  acceptance 
of  Jesus  as  a  personal  Savior.     As  has  already  been 


CHART  IX 

Children's  Interest  in  David 


i 

10(? 


90 


/ 

\ 

^-» 

^^^ 
J 

b; 

^- 

-^^ 

/ 
/ 

y 

/ 

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N*"**' 

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^-- 

. 

/ 

^ 

— 

/ 

A 
\\ 

AGE  8    9    10   11   12    13   14   15    16   17    18    19   20 
__i_BOYS.       ... GIRLS. 


pointed  out,  statistical  studies  of  conversion  show 
that  this  is  an  adolescent  phenomenon.  Starbuck' 
found  that  the  curve  of  conversion  reached  its 
maximum  at  i6,  for  both  sexes,  though  a  considerable 
percentage  of  conversions  among  the  girls  took  place 

'  Psychology  of  Religion. 


Children's  Interest  in  the  Bible  91 

in  the  13th  year.  Gulick^  found  that  the  maximum 
for  boys  was  reached  in  the  i8th  year,  with  a  large 
number  falh'ng  in  the  i6th  year  also.  In  general, 
these  investigations  show  that  most  young  people 
who  enter  the  church,  do  so  in  the  first  half  of  adoles- 
cent life.  This  virtually  coincides  with  the  period 
of  maximum  interest  in  Jesus,  as  shown  in  Chart 
VII.  The  attractiveness  of  Jesus  for  adolescents  is 
therefore  but  one  of  a  large  class  of  phenomena, 
which  the  investigation  of  adolescent  life  is  bringing 
to  light.  It  would  seem  to  afford  another  and 
weighty  reason  for  concluding  that  this  period  of 
life  is  the  time  when  the  human  soul  spontaneously 
opens  to  the  ideals  of  character  and  conduct  which 
Jesus  represents. 

Conclusions. — The  most  general  conclusion  grow- 
ing out  of  this  study  of  children's  Bible  interests,  is 
that  it  confirms  the  results  obtained  from  similar 
studies  along  other  lines,  and  is,  in  turn,  confirmed 
by  them.  This  fact  goes  far  toward  offsetting  any 
suspicion  as  to  method  or  completeness  of  data.  It 
cannot  be  accidental  that  children's  interest  in  the 
Old  Testament  falls  mainly  in  a  period  of  life  which 
experimental  studies  of  children's  mental  aptitudes, 
as  well  as  their  historical,  geographical,  reading, 
play,  and  other  interests,  have  shown  to  be  char- 
acterized by  just  the  instinctive  tendencies  and 
intellectual  qualities  that  the  material  of  the  Old 
Testament  most  powerfully  appeals  to.     Nor  can 

I  Association  Outlook,  Vol.  VIII,  pp.  33-48. 


92  The  Child  and  His^ Religion 

it  be  accidental  that  adolescent  interest  in  the  gospels, 
and  in  Jesus,  runs  parallel  with  the  general  altruistic 
and  religious  interests  brought  to  light  by  the  various 
studies  of  adolescence.  It  seems  to  me,  therefore, 
that  this  concurrence  of  results  does  two  things:  (i) 
It  vindicates  the  point  of  view  and  method  of  the 
present  study;  and  (2)  it  serves  to  strengthen  the 
conclusions  which  the  study  suggests.  These  con- 
clusions are  as  follows: 

I.  Children  up  to  8  or  9  years  are  more  interested 
in  the  portions  of  the  New  Testament  which  give 
accounts  of  the  birth  and  childhood  of  Jesus.  They 
are  interested,  however,  in  Old  Testament  stories 
relating  to  the  childhood  or  youth  of  characters  like 
Moses,  Samuel,  Joseph,  and  David.  This  suggests 
that  children  of  this  age  should  be  given  instruction 
in  the  Bible  from  the  viewpoint  of  the  childhood  of 
the  Bible,  beginning  with  Jesus  and  using  the  others 
for  purposes  of  comparative  study.  Of  course,  such 
material  would  serve  only  as  the  nucleus  of  the  pri- 
mary curriculum.  Around  this  could  be  grouped  a 
great  diversity  of  material  derived  from  studies  in 
nature,  art,  industries,  and  other  departments  of 
human  life,  so  selected  and  presented  as  to  give  the 
children  a  religious  outlook  upon  their  environment. 
A  great  deal  of  the  material  of  the  corresponding 
grades  of  the  public  schools  could  be  appropriated, 
and  given  an  ethical  and  religious  interpretation. 
This  could  be  done  most  effectively,  as  it  seems  to 
me,  through  the  medium  of  this  great  World-Soul, 
who  summed  up  in  His  character  and  life  all  the 


Children's  Interest  in  the  Bible  93 

most  fundamental  human  interests,  who  came  into 
the  world  through  the  gateway  of  childhood,  and 
who  said:  "Suffer  little  children,  and  forbid  them 
not,  to  come  unto  me,  for  of  such  is  the  kingdom  of 
heaven," 

2.  From  9  years,  on  to  13  or  14,  children  are  more 
interested  in  the  Old  Testament.  This  interest 
shows  itself  more  especially  in  a  fondness  for  the 
historical  books,  the  literary  and  prophetic  books, 
and  the  heroic  and  dramatic  elements  generally. 
This  suggests  that  the  religious  curriculum  for  this 
period  should  occupy  itself  with  the  history,  geog- 
raphy, literature,  prophecy,  and  general  moral  and 
religious  contents  of  the  first  division  of  the  Bible. 
It  would  coincide  with  the  grades  of  public-school 
work  above  the  primary  and  below  the  high  school, 
in  that  it  would  deal  essentially  with  fact-studies.  It 
would  really  mark  the  beginning  of  formal  biblical 
instruction,  the  instruction  of  the  earlier  period  being 
more  general  and  unsystematic.  The  order  of 
material  would  be:  (i)  history  and  geography,  (2) 
literature,  and  (3)  prophecy.  The  moral  and  reli- 
gious elements  would  be  involved  throughout.  Inci- 
dentally, the  history  of  other  ancient  peoples,  and, 
at  least,  the  elements  of  comparative  religion  could 
be  taught.  Much  might  profitably  be  made  of  the 
manners  and  customs,  and  the  social  life,  especially 
as  reflected  in  the  industries,  religious  and  political 
ceremonials,  and  feats  of  arms.  Sacred  art  might 
be  brought  into  requisition  to  aid  in  the  study  of 


94  The  Child  and  His  Religion 

characters  and  customs.  This  is  the  period  for 
memorizing  selected  passages  of  Scripture,  such  as 
Psalms,  Proverbs,  etc. 

3.  Children  in  the  adolescent  period  show  a  de- 
cided interest  in  the  New  Testament,  especially  in 
the  four  gospels  and  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  They 
also  show  a  very  special  interest  in  Jesus  and  the 
principal  disciples.  The  interest  in  John  the  Dis- 
ciple, is  an  early  adolescent  interest,  while  the  interest 
in  Jesus  culminates  somewhat  later,  and  is  sustained 
throughout.  This  suggests  that  the  material  of 
instruction  for  adolescence  should  be  derived  largely 
from  the  New  Testament.  It  would  center  in 
Jesus  and  his  teachings,  the  principal  disciples  being 
studied  incidentally.  The  study  of  types  of  Chris- 
tian character  and  the  development  of  Christian 
thought  and  institutions  might  very  profitably  be 
extended  to  the  later  history  of  Christianity.  Every 
possible  sidelight  of  history,  literature,  art,  and 
science  could  be  utilized  in  revealing  the  ideals  of 
Christian  manhood  and  Christian  society.  The 
religious  instruction  of  this  period  should,  it  seems 
to  me,  aim  to  establish  a  correct  personal  relation- 
ship with  the  Divine  Father  and  with  society.  Altru- 
istic and  religious  feelings  should  be  made  use  of  to 
stimulate  and  guide  a  spirit  of  co-operation  with  God 
and  men. 

4.  At  all  ages,  children  feel  more  interest  in  persons 
than  in  any  other  elements  of  the  Bible.  Even 
Bible  scenes  and   stories   appeal   to   them   mainly 


Children's  Interest  in  the  Bible  95 

through  the  man,  woman,  or  child  that  is  the  center 
of  the  scene  or  the  principal  actor  in  the  story.  This 
suggests  that  the  Bible  should  be  given  to  children, 
of  all  ages,  through  its  personal  element.  Thus,  the 
Bible  should  be  given  to  young  children  through  the 
child  Jesus.  Everything  in  either  the  Old  or  the 
New  Testament  that  could  be  properly  used  to 
make  this  human  child  Jesus  intelligible  and  lovable 
should  be  employed.  No  theological  explanation 
of  his  birth,  nature,  or  mission  need  be  attempted. 
The  spontaneous  love  of  one  child  for  another  may 
be  trusted  to  give  Jesus  a  secure  place  in  the  affec- 
tions of  children,  if  he  is  presented  simply  and 
attractively.  And  it  is  better  that  the  affections 
should  be  enlisted  in  this  matter  than  the  intellect. 
God,  whom  the  little  child  should  have  already  come 
to  know  through  its  sense  of  causality  as  instructed  by 
older  people,  may  be  given  anew  to  it  as  the  Father  of 
this  Child  of  Bethlehem,  whom  so  large  a  portion  of 
mankind  loves  and  serves.  But,  whatever  the  theo- 
logical belief  of  parents  or  teachers,  there  can  be  no 
economy,  at  this  early  period,  in  making  God  and 
Jesus  the  persons  of  a  mystical  trinity.  They  should 
be  kept  separate  in  the  child's  thought,  as  Father  and 
Child,  each  standing  for  what  such  terms  connote. 
Any  attempt  to  invest  Jesus  with  the  mysteries  of 
divine  incarnation  and  sacrificial  function  must,  it 
seems  to  me,  detract  from  his  simplicity  and  lovable- 
ness  in  the  estimation  of  little  children. 
Again,  the  Bible  should  be  given  to  children  from 


96  The  Child  and  His  Religion 

8  or  9  years,  on  to  13  or  14,  through  the  heroes  of  the 
Old  Testament.  These  heroes  may  be  selected  with 
especial  reference  to  their  importance  to  history  or 
prophecy,  or  with  reference  to  their  moral  and 
religious  example.  The  number  is  sufficiently  large 
to  give  ample  choice  in  these  directions.  When  such 
a  selection  of  heroes  has  been  made,  their  characters, 
deeds,  and  sayings  may  become  the  media  through 
which  the  children  shall  be  taught  Hebrew  history 
and  geography,  moral  and  religious  principles,  and 
anything  else  that  the  Old  Testament  can  supply  for 
purposes  of  religious  instruction.  Finally,  the  Bible 
should  be  given  to  adolescents  through  Jesus  as  an 
adult,  and,  incidentally,  through  the  disciples  and 
apostles  who  have  interpreted  his  character  and 
teachings.  Here,  again,  all  historical  or  geographical 
material,  all  doctrines  and  exhortations,  all  individual 
and  social  elements  of  ethics  or  religion  that  the 
New  Testament  presents,  should  be  taught  through 
the  personal  medium  most  closely  identified  with 
them.  In  Trinitarian  circles,  this  would  be  the  time 
to  give  the  theological  interpretation  of  Jesus'  char- 
acter and  function.  Having  established  the  human 
Jesus  in  the  affections  of  childhood,  and  having 
guided  the  child  throughout  the  intervening  years 
along  the  lines  of  a  healthy,  normal  life  which  finds 
the  fulfilment  of  its  ideals  in  this  same  Jesus,  any 
doctrines  of  the  Godhead  or  the  atonement  that  may 
seem  necessary  to  a  religious  philosophy,  may  be 
added.     In  any  case,   the  spontaneous  interest  in 


Children's  Interest  in  the  Bible  97 

Jesus  should  be  seized  upon  to  bring  the  adolescent 
lives  into  harmony  with  him,  and  to  make  his  teach- 
ings efifective  in  establishing  a  correct  regimen  of 
conduct  as  it  affects  the  self  and  others. 


CHAPTER  IV 
THE  PROBLEM  OF  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION 

Complexity  of  the  problem. — The  problem  of 
religious  education  has  never  been  so  complex  and 
difficult  to  formulate  as  it  is  at  present.  No  state- 
ment has  yet  been  made  of  the  aims,  subject-matter, 
and  methods  of  religious  education,  in  terms  of 
modern  knowledge,  and  the  felt  needs  of  modern 
life,  that  is  generally  satisfactory.  Such  a  statement 
will  not  here  be  attempted.  I  hope  only  to  sketch 
some  of  its  outlines  in  the  light  of  the  principles  dis- 
cussed in  the  preceding  chapters,  and  certain  gen- 
erally accepted  conclusions  of  secular  education. 

In  the  earlier  generations  of  Christianity,  when 
it  was  believed  that  men's  religious  life  could  be  com- 
passed by  a  body  of  religious  doctrines,  the  problem 
of  religious  education  was  comparatively  simple. 
Instruction  in  a  catechism,  the  memorizing  of  theo- 
logical statements  of  belief,  and  the  formal  assent  to 
dogmas  thought  to  be  essential  to  salvation,  sufficed 
for  such  education.  Still  later,  when  religious 
instruction  was  based  upon  the  Bible,  and  the  sub- 
ject-matter consisted  of  Scripture  passages,  selected 
more  or  less  with  reference  to  denominational  ends, 
and  presented  through  the  medium  of  formal  ques- 
tions and  answers,  the  problem  was  hardly  more 
difficult.     In  both  these  types  of  religious  education, 

99 


loo  The  Child  and  His  Religion 

the  aim  in  view  was  definite  and  immediate,  namely, 
to  indoctrinate  the  child  with  religious  beliefs  and 
get  him  formally  identified  with  the  church.  The 
subject-matter  likewise  was  prescriptive  and  simple 
in  character.  It  was  necessary  only  to  draw  upon 
the  historic  creeds,  or  select  passages  of  Scripture 
according  to  certain  standards  of  faith  and  practice. 
In  some  religious  communities,  such  conceptions  of 
the  aim  and  subject-matter  of  religious  education 
still  survive,  and  here,  of  course,  the  problem  is  a 
simple  one. 

But  wherever  religious  communities  have  felt  the 
influence  of  modern  learning,  and  the  example  of 
secular  education,  and  wherever,  as  a  result,  enlarged 
conceptions  of  man's  religious  nature  have  been 
formed,  the  problem  of  religious  education  has 
grown  accordingly.  In  such  communities  religious 
education  is  repeating  the  history  of  secular  educa- 
tion. The  vastly  enlarged  knowledge  of  human 
nature  and  its  needs,  the  increased  complexity  of 
civilization,  the  enormously  enriched  body  of  culture- 
material  available  and  the  clash  between  older 
standards  and  instruments  of  education  and  the 
newer  standards  and  instruments  which  current  life 
seem  to  demand — all  unite  to  make  the  problem  of 
education  increasingly  complex,  and  create  confusion 
^  and  divided  counsel  in  educational  circles.  Just  so 
in  religious  education,  which  must  participate  in  the 
general  movement  of  modern  knowledge  and  civiliza- 
tion,   has    there    resulted    confusion    and    divided 


Problem  of  Religious  Education         loi 

counsel.  In  both  cases,  education,  like  the  civiliza- 
tion it  is  a  part  of,  is  in  a  state  of  transition.  With 
increasing  knowledge  and  complexity  of  life,  ideals, 
programmes,  and  institutions  must  change.  It  is  not 
to  be  wondered  at,  under  such  conditions,  if  educators 
of  all  types  are  in  doubt  as  to  just  what  elements 
will  finally  enter  into  the  problem  of  education. 
How  far  the  present  generation  has  departed  from 
the  earlier  conceptions  of  religious  education,  which 
were  largely  satisfied  with  doctrinal  instruction,  may 
be  seen  in  the  work  of  the  Religious  Education  As- 
sociation. At  the  third  convention  of  this  organiza- 
tion, held  at  Boston  in  1905,  the  entire  programme 
was  devoted  to  formulating  the  aims  of  religious 
education.  So  broadly  diverse  were  the  discussions 
that  they  touched  upon  every  phase  of  religious  and 
ethical  life,  and  reflected  the  work  of  every  type  of 
social  institution  that  is  dedicated  to  the  work  of 
spiritualizing  mankind.  Two  years  later,  at  the 
fourth  convention,  held  at  Rochester,  N.  Y.,  the 
entire  programme  was  occupied  with  discussions 
regarding  the  material  of  religious  education.  There 
was  here  the  same  breadth  and  catholicity  of  views 
as  in  the  previous  convention.  Every  type  of  cul- 
ture-material, from  the  Bible  to  the  play-ground,  was 
presented  as  having  value  in  the  religious  education 
of  children.  All  this  marks  a  significant  change 
from  the  conceptions  of  religious  education  held  by 
the  early  catechists,  or  even  by  the  makers  of  Sunday- 
school  lessons  a  generation  ago. 


I02  The  Child  and  His  Religion 

Suggestions  from  secular  education. — In  consider- 
ing the  problem  of  religious  education,  we  may  start 
with  certain  principles  and  ideals  that  are  now 
generally  accepted  in  secular  education.  Here  we 
find  that,  amidst  all  the  conflicting  opinions  as  to  aim 
and  material  of  education,  a  few  great  fundamental 
conclusions  have  been  forced  upon  educators  by 
modern  science.  These  conclusions,  with  varying 
terminology,  have  begun  to  find  expression  in  a  new 
educational  philosophy. 

1.  Education  is  a  part  of  man's  effort  to  do  what 
nature  is  always  trying  to  do  for  him.  It  is  the  will 
to  live,  become  effective  through  specially  devised 
institutions  and  curricula  of  study.  It  is  conscious 
adjustment  to  a  progressive  environment.  It  is  a 
preparation  for  life,  and  a  medium  of  more  complete 
living  while  this  preparation  is  being  made.  It  is  a 
social  agency  by  which  each  new  generation  of  chil- 
dren is  put  in  possession  of  its  racial  heritage,  while 
at  the  same  time  being  enabled  to  realize  its  own 
selfhood  as  a  new  generation. 

2.  Education  can  be  accomplished  only  through 
interactions  between  the  mind  and  the  objective 
world.  It  depends  primarily  upon  things  experi- 
enced, and  not  upon  words  which  symbolize  the 
things  experienced.  It  must  be  motor,  as  well  as 
sensory  and  reflective.  It  must  occupy  itself  not 
only  with  stimulating  feeling  and  imparting  ideas,  but 
also  with  securing  adequate  expression  for  these 
feelings  and  ideas  through  conduct. 


Problem  of  Religious  Education         103 

3.  Education  involves  complete  self-expression. 
Knowledge  does  not  become  a  possession  until  it  is 
reacted  to  personally.  Mind,  and  life  itself,  have, 
in  the  last  analysis,  two  modes  of  functioning:  They 
receive  from  the  outside  world,  and  they  make  some 
kind  of  response  to  the  world  they  receive  from. 
Health,  growth,  and  efficiency  depend  upon  main- 
taining a  proper  balance  between  these  two  functions. 
If  the  receptive  function  exceeds  that  of  response, 
there  is  decay  of  the  power  to  do,  while  the  thinking 
and  feeling  processes  become  feeble,  or  perverted. 
If  the  responsive  function  is  not  in  harmony  with  the 
receiving  function,  action  and  conduct  become  false 
and  the  reflex  effect  upon  character  is  to  destroy  it. 

These  general  conclusions  suggest  the  problem 
of  secular  education,  as  regards  aim,  subject-matter, 
and  method.  They  are  equally  applicable  to 
religious  education,  and  we  may  safely  follow  their 
direction  in  sketching  the  problem  with  which  the 
latter  is  concerned. 

The  aim  of  religious  education. — If  the  aim  of  edu- 
cation in  general  may  be  summarized  as  adjustment 
to  a  progressive  environment,  the  aim  of  religious 
education  may  be  summarized  as  religious  adjust- 
ment to  a  progressive  environments  That  is  to  say, 
the    distinction    between    secular    education    and 

'  By  "environment"  is  meant  the  things  and  forces  that 
ultimately  condition  life.  By  "progressive  environment"  is 
meant  these  things  and  forces  under  increasingly  complex  and 
perfected  aspects. 


I04  The  Child  and  His  Religion 

religious  education  is  not  one  of  environment  but 
of  adjustment.  The  environment  of  a  secular  man 
and  of  a  religious  man  is  intrinsically  the  same.  The 
environment  of  a  religious  man  is  the  same,  whether 
he  be  at  his  place  of  business  or  in  a  church  pew. 
There  is  but  one  universe  and  but  one  set  of  laws 
governing  it.  There  is  but  one  law  of  gravity,  and 
one  law  of  good  and  evil.  Environment  is  one,  as 
the  world  is  one.  But  man's  adjustment  to  this 
environment  may  vary.  It  may  be  a  business  ad- 
justment, an  intellectual  adjustment,  a  religious  ad- 
justment. The  difference  lies  in  the  attitude  one 
takes  toward  environment,  the  interpretation  he 
places  upon  it,  and  the  use  to  which  he  applies  it. 
Religious  education,  therefore,  has  for  its  function 
the  effecting  of  such  an  adjustment  between  human 
life  and  its  environment  as  will  lead  men  to  take  a 
religious  attitude  toward  that  environment,  interpret 
it  religiously,  and  use  it  for  the  larger  ends  toward 
which  all  rational  conduct  is  directed. 

Let  us  note  in  some  detail  what  this  would  mean 
for  religious  education.  We  may  take  as  an  illustra- 
tion the  radical  change  it  would  involve  in  the  atti- 
tude toward  nature,  natural  laws,  and  the  natural 
impulses  and  aptitudes  of  the  soul.  For  the  things 
and  forces  that  are  described  by  the  term  "natural," 
constitute  the  most  constant  and  obvious  forms  of 
environment.  In  the  chapter  on  "Interest  and 
Education,"  and  again  in  that  on  "The  Natural 
Religion  of  Children,"  we  have  found  that  the  trend 


Problem  of  Religious  Education         105 

of  educational  history  and  of  scientific  knowledge 
is  toward  a  view  of  human  life  that  identifies  it  more 
and  more  completely  with  what  have  been  called 
"natural"  processes.  We  are  now  ready  to  follow 
up  this  clue  and  seek  out  its  religious  implications. 
What,  then,  would  be  the  result  if  a  religious  ad- 
justment should  be  effected  between  the  human 
mind  and  nature  such  as  would  harmonize  with  this 
trend  in  educational  history  and  scientific  knowl- 
edge? In  general,  nature  would  come  to  be  re- 
garded from  a  religious  point  of  view,  would  be  inter- 
preted religiously,  and  would  be  used  for  the  larger 
and  more  spiritual  purposes  of  life.  This  means  that 
God  would  be  identified  with  nature.  The  so-called 
natural  laws  would  be  regarded  as  God's  laws.  The 
supernatural  would  no  longer  be  set  over  against  the 
natural.  The  scientific  law  of  the  conservation  of 
energy  would  be  interpreted  as  a  divine  law,  efficient 
in  the  world  of  spirit  as  in  the  world  of  matter,  and 
all  disposition  to  abrogate  this  divine  law  in  the 
interest  of  human  desires  and  whims  would  be  aban- 
doned. This  means,  too,  that  natural  laws,  operat- 
ing in  the  human  body  and  mind,  as  elsewhere, 
would  be  reverenced.  Men  would  then  look  upon 
the  violation  of  a  law  of  health  with  at  least  as  much 
horror  as  the  violation  of  a  church  ordinance.  They 
would  broaden  their  view  of  sin  to  include  all  the 
gratifications  of  appetite  that  destroy  physical  vigor, 
and  all  the  slothfulness  of  mind  that  perpetuate 
ignorance  and  prejudice.     They  would,   in  short, 


IlOS  H|tG-SIiHS,  QPJ:i^ 


io6  The  Child  and  His  Religion 

eat  religiously,  clothe  themselves  religiously,  found 
homes  religiously,  establish  business  and  professional 
relationships  religiously,  and  conduct  all  the  enter- 
prises of  individual  and  social  life  from  a  religious 
point  of  view. 

Shall  it  be  said  that  there  is  already  such  a  con- 
ception of  religious  adjustment  to  nature,  directing 
the  activities  of  the  Sunday  school  and  church  ? 
That  series  of  sermons  is  rare,  that  course  of  reli- 
gious instruction  is  rare,  that  does  not  suggest  to  the 
minds  of  children  and  adults  that  the  "natural" 
and  the  "supernatural"  are  antagonistic,  and  that 
religion  has  little,  or  nothing,  to  do  with  the  natural 
order  of  things.  Within  three  months,  I  have  heard 
as  many  sermons  that  drew  a  sharp  distinction  be- 
tween the  natural  development  of  the  child  and  the 
religious  development.  That  is  to  say,  God's  work 
in  human  life  was  made  to  begin  with  special  acts 
entirely  outside  of  natural  processes  of  mind.  If 
this  is  not  to  separate  God  from  the  natural  world, 
what  can  so  separate  him  ?  The  result  is,  the  most 
widespread  confusion  in  thinking  and  conduct.  In 
St.  Petersburg  there  is  today  (August,  1908)  an  epi- 
demic of  cholera.  Hundreds  are  dying  daily,  and 
the  distress  and  social  chaos  resulting  from  such 
an  epidemic  are  showing  their  effects  in  every 
department  of  Russian  life.  What  are  the  respective 
attitudes  of  science  and  Russian  religion  toward  this 
natural  phenomenon  of  cholera  infection  ?  Science 
says  the  river  Neva  is  foul  with  cholera  germs,  the 


Problem  of  Religious  Education         107 

people  are  ignorant  and  careless,  and  the  officials 
are  remiss  in  their  duties.  The  epidemic  is  due 
to  polluted  drinking-water  and  to  general  unsanitary 
conditions  and  habits  of  the  people.  Until  these 
causes  are  removed,  the  epidemic  must  continue. 
The  Russian  priesthood  says  the  epidemic  is  a 
punishment  inflicted  upon  the  Russian  people  for 
their  sins  in  neglecting  the  ordinances  of  the  church. 
They  pay  no  attention  to  the  polluted  waters  of 
the  Neva,  or  the  unsanitary  conditions  of  the  city. 
They  offer  prayers,  instead,  and  exhort  the  people, 
not  to  greater  care  in  obtaining  their  drinking-water 
and  to  greater  cleanliness,  but  to  rites  of  expiation 
for  their  sins. 

At  the  present  moment,  an  extensive  drouth  is 
afflicting  large  sections  of  the  United  States.  Streams 
of  water  are  failing,  mills  are  shutting  down,  forest 
fires  are  raging,  wells  are  drying  up,  and  general 
anxiety  is  felt  as  to  the  effects  upon  business,  prop- 
erty, and  life.  Here  is  a  situation  more  complex, 
perhaps,  than  the  epidemic  of  cholera  in  St.  Peters- 
burg. Weather  phenomena  are  not  so  well  under- 
stood as  are  those  of  disease.  And  yet  it  is  probable 
that  the  more  intelligent  section  of  our  population 
find  a  rational  explanation  for  this  drouth.  Rainfall 
depends  upon  such  causes  as  the  evaporation  of 
moisture  from  the  earth's  surface,  the  temperature 
of  the  atmosphere,  the  movement  of  air-currents,  etc. 
There  is  very  good  reason  why  there  should  be  no 
rainfall  in  a  desert,  and  why,  again,  there  should  be 


io8  The  Child  and  His  Religion 

heavy  rainfalls  in  certain  other  sections  of  the  earth. 
No  person  with  adequate  knowledge  and  imagination, 
to  say  nothing  of  reverence,  would  think  of  hold- 
ing God  responsible  for  a  drouth,  with  all  its  conse- 
quences of  inconvenience  and  suffering.  Neverthe- 
less, we  read  in  the  daily  press  that  in  various  places 
clergymen  are  assembling  their  congregations  to 
pray  for  rain.  What  can  be  the  mental  state  of  these 
people  who  put  God  outside  the  natural  processes 
of  this  world  and  think  of  him  as  either  allowing,  or 
causing,  these  processes  to  result  in  human  distress, 
until  his  attitude  is  changed  through  the  prayers  of 
the  afflicted  ? 

The  practical  results  of  such  views  of  nature  and 
God  are  enormous.  If  a  man's  conscious  relations 
to  God  are  the  core  of  his  religion,  and  if  his  relations 
to  nature  are  the  immediate  and  vital  concern  of  his 
daily  life,  is  it  any  wonder  that  he  gives  up  either  his 
religion  or  his  regard  for  natural  law  when  these  two 
things  are  not  brought  into  harmony  ?  That  there 
are  thousands  of  men  and  women  in  Christian  com- 
munities who  are  in  just  this  condition,  is  perfectly 
evident.  On  the  one  hand  there  are  those  who  try 
to  get  their  lives  conformed  to  the  requirements  of 
natural  law  without  being  religious,  at  least  in  the 
ordinary  sense  of  that  term.  On  the  other  hand 
there  are  those  who  try  to  be  religious  without  con- 
forming their  lives  to  natural  law.  The  extremes 
of  these  classes  of  people  arc  illustrated  on  the  one 
hand  by  the  irreligionist  and  on  the  other  by  the  Chris- 


Problem  of  Religious  Education         109 

tian  Scientist.  The  former  has  given  up  the  idea  of 
God,  the  latter  has  given  up  all  regard  for  the  natural 
order  of  things. 

This  confusion  of  the  understanding,  and  division 
of  the  great  interests  of  life,  begin  in  childhood,  and 
defective  education  is  largely  responsible  for  it. 
Secular  education,  so-called,  attempts  to  give  the 
child  his  knowledge  of  the  world  in  terms  of  the 
natural.  It  excludes  all  reference  to  supernatural 
origins  and  control  of  natural  phenomena,  and 
answers  none  of  the  questions  we  have  found  to 
spring  from  the  natural  religion  of  childhood. 
Religious  education,  so-called,  attempts  to  give  the 
child  his  knowledge  of  the  world  in  terms  of  the 
supernatural.  It  excludes  all  reference  to  natural 
origins  and  control  of  supernatural  phenomena. 
Neither  attempts  to  educate  the  child  into  a  point 
of  view  that  the  natural  and  the  supernatural  are  not 
mutually  exclusive.  Thus  the  child  is  bewildered  if 
he  thinks  at  all;  and  if  his  understanding  is  so  juggled 
with  that  he  attempts  no  independent  thinking,  the 
results  are  equally  bad.  A  boy  of  twelve  years  has 
had  several  terms  of  nature-study  in  the  public 
schools,  and  is  more  or  less  rationalized  in  his  atti- 
tude toward  nature.  He  knows  the  elements  of 
meteorology,  and  if  asked  to  explain  the  cause  of  a 
drouth,  he  would  give  the  explanation  in  terms  of 
distribution  of  water-areas,  forests,  temperature, 
air-currents,  and  the  like.  But  he  attends  church 
on  Sunday  and  hears  the  pastor  pray  for  rain.    He 


L^ 


no  The  Child  and  His  Religion 

goes  to  Sunday  school  and  is  taught  that  God  inter- 
poses, upon  the  proper  request  of  men  and  women, 
and  suspends  the  operation  of  natural  forces,  or 
changes  their  direction.  What  reconciliation  can 
he  make  between  this  kind  of  divine  relationship  to 
the  natural  order,  and  the  facts  he  has  been  taught  in 
the  public  school  ?  Is  it  any  wonder  that  he  should 
become  mentally,  and  even  sometimes  morally,  con- 
fused ?  If  the  processes  of  nature  can  be  changed 
by  the  request  of  a  clergyman  or  a  Sunday-school 
teacher,  what  assurance  has  this  boy  that  there  is 
enough  fixity  in  natural  law  to  insure  his  own  safety  ? 
Is  it  strange  that  young  people  growing  up  under 
such  conflicting  instruction,  should  ultimately  be 
driven  to  one  or  the  other  extreme  already  men- 
tioned ? 

I  have  dwelt  thus  lengthily  upon  this  question  of 
God's  relation  to  natural  law  because  it  is  typical  of 
a  large  number  of  questions  that  must  be  disposed 
of  before  religious  education  can  so  much  as  define 
its  aims.  What  profits  it  for  a  man  to  be  religious 
at  all,  if  he  lives  in  a  world  where  health  and  disease, 
sanity  and  insanity,  intelligence  and  ignorance, 
thrift  and  improvidence  depend  upon  the  operation 
of  natural  laws,  and  yet  the  content  of  his  religion — 
his  God,  his  heaven,  his  worship — transcend  these 
conditions,  and  neither  stimulate  him  to  master 
them  nor  hclj)  him  in  his  impotent  struggle  against 
them  ?  Surely  the  first  aim  of  religious  education 
should  be  to  give  children  the  kind  of  God  that  they 


Problem  of  Religious  Education         1 1 1 

can  identify  with  the  natural  world  in  which  they 
live,  and  the  kind  of  attitude  toward  natural  law  as 
conditioning  their  physical  and  psychical  powers 
which  will  make  them  reverently,  and  religiously, 
obedient  to  its  demands. 

Material  of  religious  education. — The  material  of 
religious  education  is  determined  by  its  aim.  If, 
then,  the  aim  is  to  effect  a  religious  adjustment 
between  the  child  and  his  environment,  the  material 
should  be  any,  and  all,  elements  of  that  environment. 
That  is  to  say,  everything  in  a  child's  surroundings 
should  be  interpreted  religiously,  and  be  made  to 
yield  religious  instruction.  Some  elements  of  the 
environment  of  Christian  civilization  are  more 
easily  converted  to  this  use  than  others.  They  have 
more  definite  religious  associations;  their  character 
is  such  as  will  yield  a  religious  content  more  readily. 
Such  are  the  Bible  and  religious  literature  generally. 
Such,  too,  is  the  church  with  all  its  rites  and  observ- 
ances. No  question  is  likely  to  be  raised  as  to  the 
necessity  of  including  these  elements  in  the  culture- 
material  of  religion.  But  they  are  not  sufficient. 
They  are  only  a  part  of  the  environment  of  life. 
The  remainder  of  that  environment  must  be  utilized 
religiously  if  it  is  to  have  a  religious  significance  for 
the  child  at  all.  Thus  science,  art,  literature,  his- 
tory, the  experiences  of  daily  life — everything  that 
comes  within  the  environment  of  children — should 
be  appropriated  to  religious  uses.  In  no  other  way 
can  the  whole  world  be  made  to  reveal  its  divine 


112  The  Child  and  His  Religion 

authorship,  and  to  have  a  meaning  that  transcends 
the  order  of  time  and  sense.  If  it  be  said  that  this 
makes  the  problem  of  religious  educational  material 
hopelessly  complex,  the  reply  is  that  it  is  readily 
solved  by  intelligent  selection.  Secular  education 
must  regard  the  whole  of  human  environment,  except 
such  elements  as  have  been  peculiarly  associated 
with  religion.  It  is  solving  the  problem  of  selecting 
typical  forms  of  knowledge.  Religious  education 
could  do  as  much. 

In  brief,  the  ideal  religious  curriculum  would  be  a 
body  of  material  that  summarized  so-called  secular 
knowledge  and  so-called  religious  knowledge  and 
put  the  whole  to  religious  use.  If,  as  has  been 
pointed  out,  there  is  but  one  world  for  the  secular 
and  for  the  religious  life  alike,  and  if  the  religious 
and  secular  concerns  of  men  are  merely  different 
modes  of  reacting  to  the  same  world,  then  there  is  no 
other  rational  view  to  take  of  the  material  of  religious 
education.  This  means  that  a  thoroughly  rational 
programme  of  religious  education  would  differ  from 
existing  programmes  of  secular  education  only  in  the 
inclusion  of  the  distinctive  religious  literatures  of  the 
world,  and  a  more  definitely  religious  attitude  toward 
all  bodies  of  knowledge.  If  this  seems  to  blur  the 
distinction  between  religious  education  and  secular 
education,  it  may  be  acknowledged  at  once  that 
such  is  its  intent.  If  the  public  schools  interpreted 
human  experience  to  children  in  terms  of  religion, 
there  would  be  no  excuse  for  the  existence  of  Sunday 


Problem  of  Religious  Education         113 

schools.  But  since  men,  in  their  ignorance  and  prej- 
udice, have  decreed  that  they  will  have  their  children 
educated  in  such  an  irrational,  dualistic  manner,  it 
remains  for  religious  educators  to  do  what  secular 
educators  are  not  doing — give  to  each  generation  of 
children  their  entire  heritage  of  racial  experience,  in 
terms  that  compass  the  needs  of  their  whole  life. 

The  failure  of  religious  educators  to  make  their 
curricula  sufficiently  broad  has  been  due  to  a  narrow- 
ness of  aim.  So  long  as  it  is  sought  merely  to  adjust 
the  life  to  a  particular  creed,  or  certain  interpretations 
of  the  Bible,  the  choice  of  religious  culture-material 
will  be  exclusively  ecclesiastical  and  biblical.  The 
penalty  of  thus  narrowing  the  choice  of  the  material 
of  religious  education  is  a  heavy  one  and  is  now  being 
exacted  to  the  full.  The  present  generation  is  sub- 
jecting creeds,  and  the  Bible  itself,  to  the  most  search- 
ing tests.  Many,  and  profound,  modifications  are 
being  made  in  men's  beliefs.  Meanwhile,  the  masses 
of  the  people,  educated  to  have  a  certain  regard  for 
the  Bible  and  their  church  creeds,  are  increasingly 
bewildered;  and  many  of  them  are  losing  faith  in  all 
religion.  There  is  not  a  church,  perhaps,  and  hardly 
a  community  that  is  not  now  suffering  from  this 
unsettling  of  faith,  due  to  changed  interpretations 
of  the  Bible  and  modifications  of  creeds. 

The  far-reaching  significance  of  this  situation  is 
not  yet  fully  realized.  It  is  a  law  of  the  religious,  no 
less  than  the  biological,  world,  that  life  is  measured 
by  the  complexity  and  duration  of  its  environment. 


114  The  Child  and  His  Religion 

The  less  complex  and  permanent  this  environment 
is,  the  more  feeble  and  perishing  will  be  the  life  that 
depends  upon  it.  Now  the  material  of  religious 
education  is  the  principal  element  of  the  religious 
environment.  It  feeds  the  intellectual  and  emotional 
life  of  religion.  It  creates  its  atmosphere.  It  sup- 
plies the  main  conscious  stimulus  to  action.  If, 
then,  this  environment  has  been  merely  a  creed  or 
certain  interpretations  of  Scripture,  what  must  hap- 
pen when  the  creed  and  scriptural  interpretations 
are  rejected  ?  As  elsewhere  in  life,  religion  must 
perish  with  its  environment.  This  is  no  far-fetched 
analogy  between  natural  and  spiritual  laws.  It  has 
its  illustration  and  proof  all  about  us.  I  knew  an 
old  man  in  the  Middle  West  whose  religious  faith 
seemed  to  be  entirely  bound  up  with  the  doctrine 
of  immersion.  One  day  a  man  came  into  the  neigh- 
borhood with  a  Greek  New  Testament  and  a  little 
knowledge  of  exegesis.  He  convinced  the  old  man 
that  a  certain  phrase  had  been  wrongly  translated, 
and  that  Jesus  did  not  go  down  into  the  water  but 
merely  to  the  side  of  the  water.  The  result  was 
that  the  old  man  became  unsettled  in  his  faith, 
stopped  attending  church,  and  finally,  as  he  believed, 
lost  his  religion.  Here  was  a  case  of  a  minute, 
fragile  religious  environment,  with  a  religious  life 
dependent  upon  it.  This  environment  had  been 
created  by  the  man's  faulty  religious  education. 
When  it  perished,  the  man's  faith  in  all  religion 
perished  with  it. 


Problem  of  Religious  Education         115 

The  only  sure  preventive  of  such  tragedies  in 
religious  belief,  is  for  religious  educators  to  create, 
through  their  choice  of  culture-material,  an  environ- 
ment that  shall  be  universal  and  eternal.  If  there 
were  no  other  reason  for  the  creation  of  this  new,  and 
larger,  environment  for  religion,  it  would  be  justified 
as  a  prophylactic  against  the  numerous  spiritual 
distempers  that  are  now  threatening  to  become 
epidemic  as  a  result  of  the  Higher  Criticism.  The 
Bible  has  been  the  sacred  Palladium  of  Christianity 
throughout  the  centuries.  The  "unholy  hands"  of 
critical  scholarship  are  now  being  laid  upon  it. 
There  is  grave  danger  for  the  religion  that  has  been 
made  so  intimately  to  depend  upon  the  Bible  unless 
a  new,  and  broader,  environment  can  be  created  in 
which  religious  faith  may  find  its  home. 

Method  of  religious  education. — The  method  of 
religious  education  is  determined  by  its  material. 
If,  as  has  been  pointed  out,  this  material  should  be 
drawn  from  the  entire  environment  of  the  child, 
then  ought  the  method  to  be  as  diverse  as  that 
environment.  In  other  words,  since  the  child's 
whole  life  reacts  religiously  to  the  world  about  it,  so 
should  the  method  of  religious  instruction  insure 
complete  self-expression.  This  is  the  essence  of  all 
rational  method  in  education,  because  it  is  nature's 
own  way  of  training  every  living  creature.  From 
the  unicellular  animal  to  man  himself,  life  is  fash- 
ioned through  the  complete  self-expression  of  the 
individual.     In  so  far  as  courses  of  religious  instruc- 


ii6  The  Child  and  His  Religion 

tion  are  conducted  according  to  this  universal  prin- 
ciple, will  they  effectively  accomplish  their  purposes. 
Experience,  whether  in  the  form  of  knowledge  or 
otherwise,  cannot  become  truly  educative  unless  it 
involves  the  activity  of  the  self,  and  the  whole  self. 

Self-expression  takes  three  forms :  feeling-response, 
intellectual  response,  and  motor  response,  or  response 
through  conduct.  Feeling  response,  otherwise  called 
interest,  has  already  been  discussed  in  chap.  i.  It  is 
the  form  of  self-activity  that  makes  the  mind  and  the 
life  receptive,  and  prepares  the  individual  to  assimilate 
experience.  The  spontaneous  interests  of  children 
are  the  natural  responses  to  stimuli  that  are  felt  to 
have  significance.  It  is  as  true  pedagogically  as  it 
is  scripturally,  that  "out  of  the  heart  are  the  issues 
of  life."  The  recognition  and  intelligent  use  of  this 
form  of  self-expression  in  children  is  of  the  utmost 
importance.  If  feeling-response,  or  interest,  is 
neglected  or  crushed  out,  the  tendency  is  to  weaken 
the  child's  selfhood  and  destroy  the  personal  initia- 
tive that  is  so  essential  to  a  vigorous  life.  On  the 
other  hand  if  attempts  are  made  to  stimulate  arti- 
ficially this  feeling-response,  there  is  danger  of 
emotional  precocity  and  perversion.  This  danger  is 
especially  great  in  those  types  of  religious  instruction 
that  are  intended  to  lead  uj)  to  "conversion."  Here 
premature  feelings  mean  premature  decay  of  feelings, 
or  perversion  in  the  direction  of  mental  disease. 

Again,  the  method  of  religious  education  should 
insure    self-activity    in    thinking.     The    power    of 


Problem  of  Religious  Education         117 

selective  thought  is  as  important  for  religious  as  for 
other  functions  of  life.  To  get  the  symbols  of  truth 
into  the  mind,  whether  these  symbols  be  the  words 
of  the  Bible  or  of  a  creed,  avails  nothing  at  all  unless 
the  soul  reacts  to  them  with  the  intelligence  that 
comes  from  significant  experience.  Words  are  dead 
things  unless  we  have  that  in  our  minds  which  can 
vitalize  them.  Religious  instruction  that  does  not 
deal  with  material  to  which  the  minds  of  students 
can  react  intelligently,  arrests  the  power  of  thought, 
produces  apathy  of  feeling,  and  therefore  destroys 
the  capacity  for  seeking  truth  and  the  interest  in  it. 
For  this  reason,  the  selection  of  biblical  material 
that  lies  too  much  outside  of  children's  actual  experi- 
ence, and  the  dogmatic  attitude  that  is  indifferent  to 
free  individual  thought  in  young  people  and  adults, 
render  imbecile  the  intellectual  life  of  any  church, 
and  condemn  it  to  hopeless  inferiority  in  religious 
standards  and  conduct.  There  is  no  sphere  of  life 
where  abridgment  of  self-expression  is  more  fatal  to 
human  growth  and  achievement  than  in  the  intel- 
lectual order. 

Finally,  the  method  of  religious  education  should 
insure  a  motor  expression  of  righteousness.  That  is 
to  say,  it  should  involve  religious  conduct.  It  is  all 
very  well  to  feel  righteously  and  to  think  righteously, 
but  the  final  test  of  both  is  the  deed.  How  to  make 
religion  motor  and  executive  is  indeed  one  of  the 
greatest  of  problems,  personally  and  socially.  It 
was  Shakspere  who  said:   "If  'twere  as  easy  to  do, 


ii8  The  Child  and  His  Religion 

as  it  is  to  know  what  ought  to  be  done,  then  chapels 
had  been  churches,  and  poor  men's  cottages  princes' 
palaces."  Religious  educators  must  broaden  their 
curricula  and  their  methods  in  a  way  that  will  help 
boys  and  girls,  and  men  and  women,  to  work  out 
their  religious  feelings  and  ideas.  The  heterogene- 
ous manual  exercises  over  sand-maps,  the  singing  in 
choirs  or  performing  other  functions  in  the  Sunday 
school,  the  taking  part  in  young  people's  meetings, 
etc.,  will  not  suffice.  These  activities  may  be  valu- 
able, or  worthless,  according  to  the  spirit  and  condi- 
tions under  which  they  are  performed.  Motor,  or 
executive,  righteousness  must  come  nearer  to  life 
than  these  activities  can  possibly  come.  It  must  be 
of  a  type  that  affects  the  character  of  the  doer  and 
that  of  his  fellow-men.  It  must  take  the  form  of 
doing  deeds  of  virtue,  honesty,  kindness,  patriotism, 
and  the  like.  A  church  and  Sunday  school  that  can 
make  their  religious  instruction  efficient  through  an 
organized  body  of  righteous  workers,  in  the  home, 
business,  politics,  and  throughout  social  life  every- 
where will  have  realized  this  ideal.  The  outcome 
of  education  in  objective  results  that  embody  the 
ideas  and  impulses  imparted  through  instruction,  is 
the  present  aim,  and  often  the  accomplished  fact,  of 
our  best  public  schools.  There  is  no  good  reason 
why  the  same  should  not  be  true  of  the  agencies  of 
religious  education." 

'  The  last  two  paragraphs  are  largely  quoted  from  an  article 
on  "The  Child's  Self-Expression  and  Religious  Education," 
published  by  the  writer  in  Religious  Education,  August,  1906. 


Problem  of  Religious  Education         119 

Conclusion. — This  chapter  on  the  problem  of 
religious  education  has  been  theoretical  and  general 
in  character.  No  attempt  has  been  made  to  indicate 
the  details  of  a  working  programme  that  would  em- 
body the  aim,  subject-matter,  and  method  of  religious 
education  that  have  been  suggested.  In  conclusion, 
however,  I  desire  to  state  that  essentially  such  a 
programme  has  long  since  been  submitted  to  the 
test  of  experience,  and  is  now  in  successful  operation 
in  our  midst.  To  direct  the  attention  of  my  readers 
to  such  a  concrete  embodiment  of  my  ideals,  will, 
I  am  sure,  render  them  a  more  practical  service, 
than  to  give  a  verbal  description  of  a  programme. 
I  refer  to  the  kindergarten  system  and  to  the  institu- 
tion known  as  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Associa- 
tion. In  the  chapter  on  "The  Natural  Religion  of 
Children,"  I  expressed  the  conviction  that  Froebel's 
philosophy  of  education,  and  the  kindergarten  sys- 
tem based  upon  it,  afford  the  best  existing  approach 
to  a  kind  of  education  for  little  children  that  will  at 
once  conserve  their  natural  religion  and  bring  that 
religion  into  harmony  with  a  scientific  interpretation 
of  their  environment  and  their  own  lives.  In  the 
best  type  of  kindergartens,  we  find  at  least  the  begin- 
nings of  just  such  an  education  as  this  chapter  has 
contemplated.  There  the  aim  is  religious  adjust- 
ment of  the  child  to  his  entire  environment.  The 
material  is  composed  of  significant  and  typical  ele- 
ments selected  from  such  environment;  and  the 
method  is  designed  to  insure  complete  self-expression. 


I20  The  Child  and  His  Religion 

In  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association,  we 
have  an  institution  that,  in  a  different  field,  incor- 
porates identical  principles.  The  aim  of  this  insti- 
tution, at  its  best,  is  to  effect  a  religious  adjustment 
between  young  men  and  the  entire  environment  of 
their  lives.  The  Association  badge,  with  its  inscrip- 
tion "Body,  mind,  spirit,"  symbolizes  this  aim. 
Under  favorable  conditions,  we  find  a  building,  equip- 
ments, course  of  study,  and  opportunities  for  a  variety 
of  activities,  that  provide  for  a  breadth  and  complexity 
of  religious  training  that  is  unequaled  in  any  other 
institution.  We  find  also  that  this  material  is  pre- 
sented to  the  members  of  the  Association  in  a  many- 
sided  manner.  An  appeal  is  made  to  every  form  of 
self-activity — feeling,  intellect,  motor-activities,  con- 
duct. It  is  not  contended  that  the  Young  Men's  Chris- 
tian Association  is  a  perfected  institution.  It  will  not 
compare  with  the  public  schools,  colleges,  churches, 
and  various  other  institutions  in  specific  features  of  its 
work.  But  in  the  breadth  of  its  aim,  in  the  eclectic 
and  comprehensive  character  of  the  educational 
environment  it  creates  for  young  men,  and  in  the 
freedom  and  spontaneity  of  spirit  it  evokes,  it  has 
seized  upon  principles  that  are  fundamental  and  final 
for  religious  education.  It  is  my  conviction  that  the 
typical  kindergarten  and  the  typical  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association  illustrate  what  is  thus  far  the 
best  statement  of  the  problem  of  religious  education 
and  constitute  the  most  consistent  attempts  at  its 
solution. 


INDEX 


i^L.««^   WX«M^U.«^^ 


tsCS  Krl0^5aHS,  cia. 


INDEX 


Adolescence,  intellectual  and  emo- 
tional characteristics  of,  75-77; 
appeal  of  prophetic  and  literary 
books  of  the  Bible  to,  75-77;  ap- 
peal of  gospels  to,  76-77;  interest 
of,  in  Jesus,  88-91,  conversion  in, 
66-67,  90-91;  religious  education 
of,  94- 

Age,  as  affecting  the  child's  attitude 
toward  school  studies,  20,  74;  to- 
ward the  Old  and  the  New  Testa- 
ment, 57  ff.;  toward  the  different 
books  of  the  Bible.  60  ff.;  tow.ird 
Bible  scenes,  stories,  and  character. , 
77  ff.;   toward  Jesus,  85  ff. 

Animism,  in  primitive  men,  32;  in 
children,  32-35;  in  adults  of  civili- 
zation, 35-36;  interpretation  of, 
35-36. 

Atkinson,  on  children's  reading  inter- 
est, 65,  66. 

Atrophy,  as  a  biological  phenomenon, 
12;  illustrated  in  the  chick's  peck- 
ing interest,  12;  in  the  child's 
walking  interest,  12-13;  applica- 
tion to  moral  and  religious  interests, 
14. 

Bacon,  on  natural  religion,  26. 

Barnes,  Professor  Earle,  on  elementary 
inteOectual  interests,  20;  on  chil- 
dren's ideals,  21;  on  the  sense  of 
causality,  41. 

Barnes,  Mrs.  Mary  Sheldon,  on  chil- 
dren's historical  interests,  20,  74,  84. 

Bible,  place  of,  in  religious  education, 
53-55;  rational  use  of,  54-55; 
children's  attitude  toward,  56-57: 
children's  choice  between  the  Old 
and  the  New  Testament,  57-69; 
among  the  books  of,  60-77;  among 
the  scenes,  stories,  and  characters 
of,  77-85;  stages  of  racial  develop- 
ment reflected  in,  63-88;  need  of 
supplementing  the  Bible  in  religious 
experience,  113-15. 

Binet,  on  elementary  intellectual  in- 
terests, 20. 

Bolton,  on  memory  for  numbers,  74. 

Burke,  Mrs.,  on  play  interests,  30 

Causality,  the  instinct  of,  36-41; 
Ratzel  s  ^^ews  of,  37-58;  von 
Hartmann's  views  of,  36;  Sully's 
views  of,  40;    Barnes's  views  of,  41. 


Characters,  interest  of  children  in,  80- 
85. 

Chase,  Miss,  on  reading  interests,  20. 

Children,  instinctive  qualities  of,  63- 
64;  sensory  and  motor  development 
of,  64-65;  natural  religion  of,  25  ff.; 
animism  in,  32-36;  instinct  of 
causality  in,  36-41;  instinct  of  im- 
mortality in,  42-46;  faith  and  good- 
will in.  46-51;  natural  interests  of 
as  emphasized  bv  the  educational 
reformers.  1-7;  psychological  sig- 
nilicance  of  children's  interests.  8; 
biological  signihcmce  of  children's 
interests,  Q-14;  appeal  of  New 
Testament  to,  58-62;  appeal  of 
Old  Testament  to,  63-66,  73-75. 

Comenius,  educational  views  of,  5-7; 
views  on  the  natural  religion  of 
children,  26-27. 

Darrah,  on  children's  ideals,  21. 
David,  pre-adolescent  interest  in,  87. 

Education,  aim  of  secular,  102;  aim 
of  religious,  103-11;  material  of 
secular,  102;  material  of  religious, 
111-15:  method  of  secular,  103; 
method  of  religious,  11 5-18;  the 
kindergarten  and,  29-30,  119;  The 
Young  Men's  Christian  Association 
and,  119-20. 

Edwards,  Jonathan,  on  the  natural 
man,  15. 

Ellis  and  Hall,  on  play  interests,  20. 

Faith,   as  an   element   of   the  child's 

religion,  46-51. 
Froebel,  on  natural  religion,  28-30. 

Gates,  Miss,  on  musical  interests,  20. 

Gilbert,  on  development  of  children, 
64. 

Good-will,  as  an  element  in  the  child's 
religion,  46-51. 

Gould,  on  children's  animism,  34. 

Gulick,  on  play  interests,  20;  on  con- 
version, 67,  91. 

Hall,  on  play  interests,  20;  on  the 
contents  of  children's  minds,  40-41. 

Hancock,  on  children's  ability  to 
reason,  66. 


123 


124  The  Child  and  His  Religion 


Herbart,  doctrine  of  interest  formu- 
lated by,  8,  9. 

Immortality,  the  instinct  of,  42-46; 
Sully's  \iews  of,  42;  Street's  \iews 
of,  44-45;  racial  economy  of,  45- 
46;  significance  of,  for  the  child,  46. 

Interest,  and  the  educational  re- 
formers, 1-8;  Herbart's  doctrine 
of,  8,  9;  the  biological  conception 
of,  9-11;  sequence  of,  11-12;  atro- 
phy of,  12-14;  opposition  to  doc- 
trine of,  14-19;  study  of,  by  secular 
educators,  10-21;  attitude  of  reli- 
gious educators  toward,  21-24. 

James,  view  of  relation  between  atten- 
tion and  will,  1 7. 
Jegi,  on  children's  ideals,  21. 
Jesus,  children's  interest  in,  85-91. 

Kindergarten,  as  an  embodiment  of 
both  religious  and  scientific  ideals  in 
education,  29-30,  119-20. 

Lancaster,  on  altruistic  feeling,  66; 
on  prophetic  spirit  of  adolescence, 
76;   on  loyalty  to  Jesus,  89. 

Lindley,  on  complex  intellectual  in- 
terests, 21. 

Monroe,  Professor  Paul,  on  mediaeval 
conception  of  education,  3-4. 

Monroe,  Professor  Will  S.,  on  chil- 
dren's ideals,  21. 

Montaigne,  protest  of,  against  edu- 
cation of  his  time,  5. 

Natural  religion,  the  doctrine  of  in- 
tere.st  and,  25-30;  science  and,  30- 
32;  elements  of,  32-52;  significance 
of,  for  religious  experience,  104-10. 

O'Shea,  on  interest  in  pictures,  myths, 
etc.,  21. 

Pestalo/.zi,  on  natural  religion,  27-28. 
Plutarch,  on  natural  religion,  37. 
Pre-adolescence,  interest  of,  in  David, 
87. 


Rabelais,  satire  of,  on  monastic  edu- 
cation, 4,  5. 

Ratzel,  on  the  instinct  of  causality,  37- 
38. 

Reflex  activities,  the  correlative  in- 
terests of,  10,  II. 

Religion,  natural  to  the  child,  25;  con- 
ception of  children's  religion  held 
by  educational  reformers,  25-30; 
implications  of,  in  scientific  knowl- 
edge, 30-31 ;  ethnological  study  and, 
31-32;   genetic  psychology  and,  32. 

Religious  education,  complexity  of 
the  problem  of,  99-101;  suggestions 
from  secular  education,  102-103; 
aim  of ,  103-11;  material  of,  111-15; 
method  of,  115-18;  successful  types 
of,  119-20. 

Rousseau,  educational  views  of,  7,  8. 

Scripture,  Professor,  on  time-memory, 
75- 

Sex,  rise  of  interests  in,  12;  differ- 
ences in  bibUcal  interests  according 
to,  60,  61,  72,  73,  78,  80,  81,  86,  98. 

Shaw,  on  primary  intellectual  interests, 
20. 

Speech,  rise  of  interest  in,  11. 

Starbuck,  on  conversion,  66. 

Stories,  interest  of  children  in,  79-80. 

Street,  on  the  instinct  of  immortality, 
44;   on  language  training,  74. 

Sully,  on  the  instinct  of  cau.sality,  40; 
on  the  instinct  of  immortality,  42. 

Taylor,  on  interest  in  the  public-school 

curriculum,  20. 
Tylor,  on  animism,  32. 

von  Hartmann,  on  the  instinct  of  cau- 
sality, 38. 

Walking  interests,  11,  12,  13. 

Ward,  Miss,  on  geographical  interests, 

20,  74,  84. 
Will,  in  relation  to  interest,  16-18;   in 

relation  to  attention,  17. 
Wissler,  on  reading  interests,  20. 


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THIS    BOOK  CARD 


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University  Research  Lib 


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